According to the fine folk over at Dread Central, Simon Pegg is due to continue his all-out assault on Hollywood by signing up for John Landis’ upcoming Burke & Hare movie. In case you don’t know the story, in the 1820s, William Burke and William Hare decided to get some money by selling cadavers to the Edinburgh Medical College. However while supplying bodies for medical students has a long and slightly dodgy history (and in the 19th Century grave-robbing was common for this purpose), Burke & Hare decided to take things one step further by killing people just so their bodies could be chopped up in the name of science.
One question that’s being asked about Pegg’s involvement in the movie is that if he’s doing it and the film is about a duo of killers, how about Nick Frost as the other one? Although there’s no news yet on whether Frost has even been asked, there’s already speculation about his involvement. However having recently made Paul, which Pegg and Frost also co-wrote, it may be that they’re looking for something to do separately at the moment. (It’s also possible that Pegg won’t be either Burke or Hare, and could playing their medical accomplice, Doctor Robert Knox)
Either way it’s good news for Landis fans, as despite his estimable track record of films in the 80s, including The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf In London and Coming To America, he hasn’t directed a proper film since 1998, instead making episodes of TV series and a few experimental comedy projects. However it looks like Landis is preparing numerous films, of which Burke & Hare is due to be the first.