If a black-as-pitch story of murder, betrayal and toe-numbing Edinburgh weather brings Shallow Grave sloping to mind, it's time to make room in your heart for another Auld Reckie-set murderous morality tale. Burke & Hare, John Landis' long-awaited big-screen return, is currently in post-production and, judging by the nonchalant look on the faces of Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis' deadly double-act in USA Today's pic, its shaping up to be an equally
"They're a very evil Laurel and Hardy," says Landis of the two Williams, Burke (him on the left) and Hare (him on the right). The true-life pair murdered their way around 18th century Edinburgh, selling their victims' bodies to science and racking up a body count to make jealous in the process.
Fittingly, Landis is doing all the cutting and snipping at Ealing Studios. "Burke & Hare has horror things within it — it's about dissection and grave robbing, after all," he told USA Today, "but it's a very black romantic comedy, hopefully in the tradition of the old Ealing Studios' Kind Hearts And Coronets and The Ladykillers."