Simon to play William Hare

Simon Pegg is set to star in a film about the serial killers Burke and Hare.

Director John Landis – whose credits include An American Werewolf in London – told a fan convention that the Shaun Of The Dead star had been lined up to play William Hare in the dark comedy.

Hare and William Burke killed 17 victims in Edinburgh in 1827 and 1828, and sold the corpses to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection.

A spokeswoman for Ealing Studios refused to comment on the casting, as did Pegg’s agent.

But Landis apparently revealed the news to the fan website Dread Central at the Monster-Mania Convention in New Jersey.

Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, who wrote the two recent St Trinian's films, have written the script and filming is due to start in Edinburgh shortly.

Published: 25 Aug 2009