Bill Nighy in Burke and Hare with John Cleese, Simon Pegg and Minnie Driver

Bill Nighy will star in a new black comedy about two 19th century grave robbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school.

It is uncertain what role Bill will play, but it won’t be one of the two murderous leads. Simon Pegg has been cast as one of them though.

The film will be directed by John Landis who also directed Animal House, Blues Brothers and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

“This autumn Landis will have a job, directing a big-screen feature film for the first time this century, shooting Burke and Hare for Ealing Studios with Bill Nighy, John Cleese and Minnie Driver (the two murderous leads are yet to be finalised). After spending several years shooting episodic television and documentaries and turning down offers to make movies that he would not pay to see, Landis is “thrilled to be working in the UK again on a quality project”. He promises that the tale of the early 19th-century serial murders will be shot “extremely faithfully but as a romantic comedy in the great Ealing black-comedy tradition.” With the insight of a Scorsese and the fanboy excitement of Tarantino, Landis launches into a recap of classic Ealing pictures from the 1940s and 1950s, animating his narratives with potent pauses and luxurious profanity. ”

With a cast like that, this is certainly a film to look forward to!

(Source)
Burke and Hare on IMDB

And there is a great new poster out for Astroboy, you can have a look at it here