Simon Pegg has blasted TV bosses for making a US version of his hit show Spaced without being consulted.
The Shaun of the Dead star created and starred in the show alongside writer partner Jessica Hynes in 1999. It revolved around two twentysomthings who rent a room in a London flat under the pretence that they are a couple. The pair's surreal adventures ran for two series on Channel 4.
However, Pegg nor Hynes hold the rights for the show, and it was recently announced that Granada have signed a deal with US TV bosses to make a stateside version of the cult hit. But Pegg is fuming as he believes he should have been made aware of the plans.
He said in a statement, "My problem is the sheer lack of respect... selling out and appropriating out ideas without letting us know. It's a decision I can only presume was made as a way of avoiding having to give us any money.
"We had neither the experience not the kudos to demand any clauses. We signed away our rights to any input in the show's international future because we just wanted to get it made. You would perhaps hope though, out of basic professional respect and courtesy, we might have been consulted."
And the show's director Edgar Alan Wright was equally annoyed, writing on his MySpace page, "Me, Simon and Jessica are not involved in any way, shape or form. And neither do we want to be. It pains me to see it reduced to this."