Now here’s one where we’ll believe it when we see it. It was announced last week that Natalie Portman had been attached to play the heroine in an adaptation of the novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Well, now Pajiba reports that the director and writer of the film version will be David O. Russell, of Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees fame.
The book itself is about 80% Jane Austen’s original text, but it then adds in some blood-thirsty zombies, courtesy of writer Seth Grahame-Smith. So it’s basically Elizabeth Bennet looking for love and independence, set against the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns people into the killer undead. However she’s rather distracted from trying to kill these fiends (using her impressive martial arts skills) by the arrival of the arrogant Mr. Darcy.
It’s a bit of a departure for Russell from his previous projects – he’s certainly never done horror before – and with the films he’s currently got in the works having problems, it would be slightly surprising if he landed a high profile gig such as this so soon. Nailed, which he filmed last year, is still stuck in a post-production hell of money troubles, and there’s no sign of the Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel movie arriving anytime soon (it should also have starred James Caan, but the actor walked off the project after falling out with the notoriously temperamental director – remember Russell’s bizarre rant at Lily Tomlin on the Huckabees set?).
The director has also finished shooting the boxing drama The Fighter with Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, so maybe if that one is looking good, the people behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies thought he was still a good bet. Actually, if Russell, Bale and Wahlberg managed to make a film together and no one ended up killing anybody else, that has to be a good sign.
Although we’ll wait for an official announcement before we 100% believe Russell’s involvement, it looks like it may well be true.