David Tennant and Simon Pegg Are Landis’ Burke and Hare
by Britt Hayes
Bloody Disgusting was first to report that David Tennant (Dr. Who) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) have signed on to play the titular Burke and Hare for director John Landis. Burke and Hare is based on the true story of William Burke and William Hare, serial killers who sold corpses to medical schools for dissection in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1827 to 1828. Burke and Hare started as grave robbers, but soon turned to murder. Burke’s mistress, Helen M’Dougal, and Hare’s wife, Margaret Laird, assisted in the crimes. There’s been no word on who would play these two characters, or if they are involved in the script at all. Tennant and Pegg previously worked together in an episode of Dr. Who.
Landis hasn’t directed a film since 1998′s Susan’s Plan, but has directed some television episodes, and has two entries in the Masters of Horror anthology (Family was particularly wonderful). The script for Burke and Hair is written by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft. The pair have previously worked together on Oh, Marbella!, St. Trinians, and St. Trinians 2. These aren’t movies that jump out at me and scream horror, but I’ve learned to not make snap judgments with writers. Often times, writers don’t get around to writing what they really love and know about for years. Maybe this is something Ashworth and Moorcroft (those names together even sound like the name of a funeral home) have been waiting to do.
The story of Burke and Hare was previously adapted for film in Robert Wise’s 1945 film, The Body Snatcher, the 1960 film The Flesh and the Fiends starring Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance, and an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964, titled “The McGregor Affair”.
