Comic to appear in US mob drama

American TV viewers will get to judge Simon Pegg's American accent next month, when he appears as a stand-up comic embroiled in the gangster underworld of 1940s Los Angeles.

The World's End star adopts a 'disconcerting' American accent for his role as 'third rate comedian and mob hanger-on' Hecky Nash in the hotly-tipped drama Mob City for the TNT channel.

The show is being produced by Frank Darabont, the scriptwriter of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile who previously developed The Walking Dead for TV.

He says of Pegg: 'He’s laying down a dramatic performance in a flawless, American dialect of the era… People who are Simon Pegg fans will be blown away by what he has done in this.

'I am his friend, and I’ve always known he’s a very good dramatic actor and I expected great things from him, even my expectations were knocked on my ass by how good he is. So, you have that to look forward to.”

Reports from a preview screening of the opening scenes at New York's Comic-Con convention last month reveal that Pegg plays a go-between who meets a Marine-turned-cop in a bar and offers him $1,000 for an hours work, to look tough while a shady transaction takes place.

Mob City, which launches on December 4, is based on the non-fiction book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City, and also stars Ed Burns, Milo Ventimiglia, and Robert Knepper.

Meanwhile, Pegg has donned a formidable moustache for his latest role, a a black-clad assassin in the Australian crime thriller Kill Me Three Times. Director Kriv Stenders said: 'I personally believe comic actors make the best kind of villain.'

Published: 12 Nov 2013