Burke and Hare Transform Edinburgh

Steve Barton |

Feb 23, 2010

Ah, the magic of movie making! With John Landis’ Burke and Hare filming as we speak, the lovely streets of Edinburgh have been transformed to their former, darker selves!

Over on The Moving Image website some behind-the-scenes images of one of the film’s sets have gone live. Dig on just one below and hit up the link for more!

Burke and Hare stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Star Trek, “Spaced”) as William Burke and Andy Serkis (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Lord of the Rings, King Kong) as William Hare.

Other casting includes Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Confessions of a Shopaholic) as Ginny, an ambitious young actress and Burke’s love interest, and Jessica Hynes neé Stevenson (“Spaced”, Son of Rambow, Shaun of the Dead) as Hare’s haggard and suffering wife, Lucky.

The remaining supporting cast consists of Oscar-nominee Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, Michael Clayton), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Ronnie Corbett (“Extras”), Reece Shearsmith (League of Gentlemen), David Schofield (Pirates of the Caribbean), Allan Corduner (Topsy Turvey), Bill Bailey (Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang, Black Books), Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill), and Michael Smiley (“Spaced”).

For those unfamiliar with the misdeeds of Burke and Hare, which were known as the West Port Murders — These crimes were perpetrated in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1827 and 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their seventeen victims to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection.