Empire Magazine has provided us with our first look at John Landis‘ “Burke And Hare.” The film follows two British grave robbers in the nineteenth century, who make ends meet by selling the corpses procured at local cemeteries. The image showcases Scotty and Gollum, played by nerd legends Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the real-life scavengers, and will take a blackly comedic tone with the case that still lives in infamy. Isla Fischer, Tim Curry, John Cleese, Tom Wilkinson, Jenny Agutter and Stephen Merchant co-star in the film, which has been long in the works before Landis stepped in.
We’re led to believe it squashed a slightly more provocative and also modern version of the story, the long-rumored “The Meat Trade” from Antonia Bird (“Ravenous“), with Robert Carlyle and Colin Firth set to star. The script, from “Trainspotting” writer Irvine Welsh, saw Burke and Hare as two lower-level gangster brothers trying to muscle into the lucrative organ transplant black market. The project was first announced in 2004, but nothing’s been heard from the film, or Bird, since.
The subject matter is nothing if not popular, having served as the inspiration for a 1972 horror film called, surprisingly, “Burke and Hare.” We haven’t seen this film, which has been described as Hammer-esque, but apparently the entire thing’s on YouTube, so browse and enjoy!