Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is having a bit of a rocky road to the screen. All looked fine early last year when David O Russell was going direct Natalie Portman in an adaptation of Seth Grahame Smith’s book, but that fell through when the actress left, shortly followed by the director. Since then Mike White has been and gone from the director’s chair, Craig Gillespie (the upcoming Fright Night remake) has been mooted and now there are rumours that author Grahame-Smith himself may sit in the director’s chair himself, although Gillespie is still in the running.
THR has the news, and says Lionsgate is considering Grahame-Smith and his producing parter, David Katzenberg (son of Dreamworks Animations head honcho, Jeffrey) as a potential directing team for the project. Although not the most experience screen duo, they created and wrote the MTV comedy The Hard Times of RJ Berger, with Katzenberg directing, while Grahame-Smith is adapting his own novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, for Timur Bekmambetox to direct.
Lionsgate is apparently considering other possible directors too. They need to come up with a name soon though, as the film is looking more and more like it could descend into a development hell that it can’t return from, and needs momentum to keep it going after the revolving door of actors and directors it’s had.
The novel of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies takes about 80% of Jane Austen’s original text, but then adds in some blood-thirsty zombies. 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.