Tennant Out of ‘Burke & Hare’, Serkis In

Simon Pegg, one of the stars of Burke & Hare, tweeted that his former co-star David Tennant (Doctor Who) has been replaced by Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings).  Collider told us so.  Then they told us that Pegg removed the tweet.  Then I stopped trusting Twitter.

Pegg (Star Trek, Hot Fuzz)  is committed to playing William Burke, half of the duo that lucratively supplied nineteenth-century British doctors with cadavers by killing innocent people.  True story.  Serkis (set to reprise his memorable role as Gollum in the upcoming The Hobbit is now set to play Burke’s partner, William Hare.

The film will be helmed by Mr. John Landis, who directed the absolute, indisputable, classics Trading Places, Coming to America, Spies Like Us and a little industry-changing music video called Thriller.  This is Landis’ first time back in the director’s chair since 1998.  I’m pumped.

Also having directed An American Werewolf in London, the man is no stranger to mayhem.  The script for Burke & Hare was penned by the team of Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, who previously co-wrote St. Trinian’s and Oh Marbella!

Serkis

Landis

With Pegg involved, you know there’ll be a sizeable helping of levity to balance all that innocent people-killing and  I’m excited to see what Landis does after a decade-long hiatus from directing.

Burke & Hare will be slaying movie-theater audiences in 2010. How do you feel about Serkis taking over for David Tennant?

Source: Collider, Simon Pegg’s Twitter Page