John Landis's Burke & Hare

Simon Pegg is to start shooting his new comic horror film Burke and Hare next weekend.

The black comedy, based on the notorious serial killers who operated in 1820s Edinburgh, is the first movie to be made by American Werewolf in London director John Landis in more than ten years.

Pegg will play William Burke, with Lord Of The Rings star Andy Serkis as his accomplice William Hare. Sacha Baron Cohen’s fiancée Isla Fisher will play Burke’s girlfriend.

It will be made by Ealing Studios, famous for dark comedies of the Forties and Fifties such as The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts And Coronets

Shooting begins on January 31 on location in Edinburgh and London.

Landis has previously said of the project: ‘I am thrilled to be making a picture for Ealing. Burke and Hare have inspired a number of movies over the years, but Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft have written a unique and terrific screenplay which offers me a tremendous chance to make an historically accurate, very black, romantic comedy.’

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

Pegg will next be seen in the road comedy Paul alongside regular collaborator Nick Frost.

Published: 22 Jan 2010