Everything Goes Wrong for Simon Pegg in ‘Kill Me Three Times’

Sandra Miska

Simon Pegg will be trying his hand at contract killing in the Australian black comedy “Kill Me Three Times,” a film that will open in the States April 10.

Pegg, who tackled police brutality (“Hot Fuzz”), a zombie apocalypse (“Shaun of the Dead”), and an alien invasion (“The World’s End’) in his previous films, has never quite been this dark. The British comic actor plays professional assassin Charlie Wolfe, who ends up dead on the beach. This is hardly a spoiler, since the film reportedly opens with Wolfe cursing his misfortune from the afterlife before he launches into the tale of how he met his ultimate fate.

Rewind to the beginning with Wolfe being offered a staggering summer of money by wealthy bar owner Jack Taylor (Callan Mulvey) in exchange for his killing Jack’s cheating wife Alice (Alice Braga). Wolfe goes to do the job only to find that Nathan Webb (Sullivan Stapleton), a dentist with a gambling problem, and his manipulative receptionist wife Lucy (Teresa Palmer), who also happens to be Jack’s sister, has beat him to it. The motives of these characters are revealed as Wolfe’s story unravels.

Other key players include corrupt cop Bruce (Bryan Brown) and Alice’s surfer boyfriend Dylan (Luke Hemsworth)

“Kill Me Three Times” is the work of director Kriv Stenders, who previously directed the more light-hearted “Red Dog.” First-time screenwriter James McFarland penned the script. The film premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“It was an interesting proposition to have the bad guy be the audience’s POV,” said Pegg in a recent interview when asked what made him decide to play a character so different from his sweet, likable types. “I just really liked the idea of playing such an amoral bastard. He’s fun, even though he’s horrible.”

Next up, Pegg will reprise the role of field agent Benji Dunn in “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” the fifth installment in the franchise. Fans can also look forward to him again playing Scotty in “Star Trek 3.”

“Kill Me Three Times” opens in theaters April 10.