David Tennant to be replaced by Andy Serkis in Lanidis' BURKE & HARE

It seems David Tennant (former Dr. Who) has been replaced by Andy Serkis (Inkheart, Prestige) to star opposite Simon Pegg in John Landis' upcoming true crime story of Burke and Hare. Tennant and Serkis co-starred together in the 2008 drama Einstein and Eddington (pictured above).

The news of the casting switch up came straight from Simon Pegg who tweeted:

David Tennant had to drop out of [Burke & Hare] but by sheer glorious serendipity a legend of Middle Earth and Skull Island has come aboard. Welcome AS.

The AS refers to the above mentioned Serkis, who's most famous performances were in donning the motion capture suit as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films and as the title character in King Kong. He will again put on the mo-cap suit reprising his role as Gollum in the Hobbit films, and has already wrapped on Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of Tin Tin.

There has been no official studio announcement and the tweet has since been deleted from the time our friends at FirstShowing brought the news to our attention. So deals may not be final with Serkis, but it's safe to assume that Tennant is definitely out. It's a shame, but if Serkis does ultimately join the project, it's a pretty nice trade off.

The real life story of Burke and Hare, also known as the West Port murders, were crimes 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.

Landis' take however will be a dark comedy as opposed to the other dramatic or musical adaptations the story has received over the years. Landis' Blues Brothers star Dan Aykroyd is also attached to star.

For full story details and promo art Click Here.

Let us know what you think of the potential casting switch up in the rant back section below.

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