Simon says: Pegg on 'Ghost Protocol'

and the University of Bristol, writing his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist Overview of Popular Seventies Cinema and Hegemonic Discourses." And years later, he reached cult stardom fleeing zombies in the horror comedy "Shaun of the Dead" (2004).

It's that mix of the intellectual and the pop cultural that informs much of Pegg's work, including the buddy-movie parody turned Hammer Films pastiche "Hot Fuzz" (2007) and the standup comedy and British TV work he did early on. Pegg has also played a somewhat dotty Scotty in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" (2009) and computer wiz Benji Dunn in "Mission: Impossible III" (2006), a role he reprises in "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," opening Dec. 16 on IMAX screens (and wide Dec. 21).

Pegg, who also plays one of the two men named Inspector Thompson in the upcoming motion-capture film "The Adventures of Tintin," spoke by phone from England with regular Newsday contributor Frank Lovece.

So . . . "Ghost Protocol." Any zombies?

No, it's far too fast for zombies. They would be left behind in the dust.

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Literally -- I saw the movie's IMAX dust storm. My eyes are still stinging.

Yeah, it was pretty fantastic. I remember when we were shooting that stuff, and the crew and [star] Tom [Cruise] and everyone were just breathing it in. I think it was like wood splintered into tiny atomized pieces, and everyone was just coughing for days.

You'd think they would have used CGI, especially given [director] Brad Bird's familiarity with it .

It was very important, I think, to Brad Bird and Tom that things were real. There's a thing nowadays with CGI [in that] it does enable us to do pretty much anything and remove the jeopardy from certain situations, and viewers] just think, "Oh, it's been done with computers." Whereas if it's done for real, there's still that presence you can get from actual physical things happening. I think that's why they used real dust and why Tom dangled off that building.

By "dangled off that building," you're referring to Cruise, himself, doing wirework stunts 2,700 feet up -- well over half a mile in the air -- at the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. We've all seen the photographs of him doing it, but . . . really? Seriously?

Yes! I mean, obviously, the safety measures were rigorous because we had a lot more of the film to shoot, so if he fell it would have been a disaster for many reasons. But, yeah, he did it -- and he did it with a great big smile on his face! It was awe-inspiring to watch. I went up there to check it all out, and it was kind of a hive of silent industry. There were all the stunt [coordinators] with the harnesses and stuff and Tom just out there having the time of his life running around on the outside of the tallest building in the world.

I have a quote from you that sounds too good to be true: Did you actually once say, when someone asked if you were going to leave England and go Hollywood, "Well, it's not like I'm going to go do 'Mission: Impossible III'!"

It's true. The British press can be quite sort of possessive and get annoyed at you if you show any signs of leaving. They consider Hollywood the pinnacle of success, but at the same time they see it as a betrayal, in some respects. I always liked saying, "Oh, I'm not going to just go away and be in some blockbuster," and the blockbuster I picked was this imaginary "Mission: Impossible III." And six months later, I get a call from J.J. Abrams saying "Would you like to be in 'Mission: Impossible III'?"

Do you even remember making that comment, or to whom?

No, but I was reminded of it later. That was the world telling me to not be so full of myself.

Well, hey, it's not like you're going to go off and do "Star Trek 2." Oh, wait . . . !

[Laughs.] Yeah, that's something I'm very much looking forward to. I leave for L.A. in January, and I can't wait. We've been emailing each other and stuff, and I'm very excited to see everybody again and get back to that particular group, because it's a lot of fun.