Simon Pegg is coming to Manchester International Film Festival this weekend

Simon Pegg fans sit up and take note, because the actor is going to be in Manchester this weekend.

He’ll be attending the Manchester International Film Festival this weekend for the screening of his new film Lost Transmissions, which sees Pegg playing an acclaimed music producer who goes off his medication for schizophrenia.

He’ll also appear alongside the film’s writer and director Katharine O’Brien for a special Q&A session after the screening.

Both events will take place at the Great Northern Warehouse’s Odeon just off Deansgate.

It’s a rare dramatic role for the actor, who is best known for his comedic parts in the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) and his appearances in the Mission Impossible and Star Trek franchises.

Speaking on his new role in Lost Transmissions, he said that the film has helped him open up about his own struggles with mental health and that it also represented a great opportunity to work with a female director.

Alongside Pegg, the film also stars Juno Temple as a friend trying to get him the help he needs, chasing him through the L.A. music scene in the process.

The film is a directorial debut for Katharine O’Brien, who has said that it is based on events she experienced when a close friend of hers went off his medication.

She has previously written The Automatic Hate and worked on Virgin Suicides and Buffalo ʼ66.

Lost Transmissions screens this Sunday 8th March from 5.30pm at Odeon in the Great Northern Warehouse, with a Q&A afterwards.

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