Ugh, are we still doing this? I guess so. Entertainment Weekly has the first promotional still from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s book from director Burr Steers (17 Again, Charlie St. Cloud). The picture (which I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post here, so click the link), like the book, is exactly what it sounds like. Can’t we just accept the fact that hearing the title for the first time is as good as it’s going to get?
Elizabeth (Lily James), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), Mary (Millie Brady), Jane (Bella Heathcote), and Kitty (Suki Waterhouse) aren’t just eligible singles anymore; they’re sword- and knife-wielding martial artists.
With a zombie apocalypse that’s been raging for more than 70 years, they kind of have to be. Writer-director Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) took on the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s enormously popular book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after years of development hell—David O. Russell had penned a draft and was attached to direct at one point—and rewrote the script with an eye toward realism. “The first thing I did was reinsert all the Pride and Prejudice beats,” says Steers, who also beefed up the roles of Darcy (Sam Riley) and Wickham (Jack Huston). [EntertainmentWeekly]
I wonder if he inserted this beat, or if the audience will be adding it. Also, “Suki Waterhouse” sounds like some strange new porn naming convention created using your dinner and a household appliance. Suki Waterhouse, Linguini Frigidaire, Bouillabaise Price-Pfister, Beurre-Blanc Monkfish Kenmore…
After Seth Grahame-Smith co-wrote the disastrous Dark Shadows with Tim Burton and had his book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter turned into a much-derided disappointment, I was hoping we could just let this project die, but apparently the success of The Walking Dead means anything with “and Zombies” at the end gets an automatic greenlight. “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” seems like one of those jokes that’s endlessly entertaining to people who’ve never made a joke before.