It was recently announced on Collider.com that not only has Andy Serkis replaced David Tennant as William Hare but Isla Fisher and Tom Wilkinson have been added to the cast. Isla Fisher will be playing the role of William Burke’s girlfriend, “an actress looking for a patron who might or might not be an accomplice to the murders.” Tom Wilkinson will be playing the role of Dr. Robert Knox.
Burke and Hare is about William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) who are serial murderers during the period of November of 1827 and October 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were a pair of many (at the time) body-snatchers, people who killed in order to earn money by selling the cadavers to local medical doctors and institutions for study. They sold these cadavers to Dr. Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson) who then studied them for medical purposes.
With the exception of Isla Fisher I’ve been a huge fan of all of these actors for a very long time. My issue with Fisher is that she tends to not do anything too interesting on screen other than stand about hoping that me staring at her (looking exactly like Amy Adams at times) is enough to be considered a performance. There are a few films though that I have liked her in; namely: Definitely, Maybe (2008) and Wedding Crashers (2005), and that’s it. While with Simon Pegg‘s recent roles in Star Trek and Mission: Impossible III have reminded me that he can not only be funny but I believe he will probably do well in a slightly more dramatic roles.
The film will be directed by John Landis, who’s given us classics like The Blues Brothers (1980) and Three Amigos! (1986) so you know he can do comedy. Landis‘ last film that I saw was the horrible sequel, The Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), and he has only done one other film since then which I haven’t seen but doesn’t seem all that promising. I’m not sure what to take away from that other than this film seems to have a top notch cast and a director that should be able to get the job done.
What are your thoughts on this project?