Despite finishing touches being put on “The Fighter” at the moment and the film picking up great buzz (although star Mark Wahlberg suggests that the film will be bypassing the festival circuit entirely), things have been very quiet on director David O. Russell’s potential next project, an adaptation of the best-seller “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which gives a horror-comedy spin to Jane Austen’s classic novel.
Russell was first announced as being on board the project in December, but little’s been heard since, and the director’s been linked to other projects in the meantime; while he seems to have finally given up on the half-finished satire “Nailed,” he’s also been linked to a version of the videogame “Uncharted,” so we weren’t sure of the project’s status.
Fortunately, our man on the ground at Comic-Con spoke to Natalie Portman, who’s set to play Elizabeth Bennett in the project (as well as producing), at a round table for “Thor,” and it looks like it’s still moving full steam ahead. Portman said “We just got a new script from David O. Russell, and we’re hoping to make it this year.” While part of us feels that there might be better uses of Russell’s talents than this, it’s still good to see movement on this one, if only for the inevitable leaked YouTube footage of Russell going apeshit on a period-clothed zombie extra.
Portman was also asked about the rumors that she’s one of the 375,000 actresses in the running to play Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” but it seems that the reports that David Fincher prefers a relative unknown are correct; Portman said “I really like the books but I have not been approached at all, so any of that is pure rumor.” No great surprise (particularly as there seems to be a short-list of five developing anyway), but at least that’s one candidate we can firmly rule out.