If at first you don’t succeed…. The big screen adaptation of Seth Grahame Smith‘s best-selling literary mash up “Pride And Prejudice And Zombies” has tried and tried again to get made. David O. Russell, Mike White, and most “recently” “Lars And The Real Girl” and “Fright Night” director Craig Gillespie have all come and gone, trying to get the movie off the ground at Lionsgate with little success. And while names like Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Wasikowska and Blake Lively were all mentioned/desired/wished for at various points, a slightly different approach is being taken now.
Lily Collins, perhaps still best known for “The Blind Side” and attempting to lead a new YA franchise this summer with “Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones,” is now attached to star in ‘P&P&Z’ with Burr Steers to direct. Wait, who? Oh, he’s the guy broke out with the indie “Igby Goes Down,” only to make two Zac Efron movies you forgot about, “17 Again” and “Charlie St. Cloud.” So…yeah…a far way down from that Russell/Portman version that was initially scuttled officially due to “scheduling,” though Russell later said the budget he was given to work with was unworkable.
Speaking of Russell, it’s his script that’s still going to be used, though the possibility is there for someone to give it a rewrite. No start date yet, so we’ll see if this iteration pans out. [Variety]