Until recently, the adaptation of Seth Graeme-Smith’s Jane Austen-meets-horror genre-mash book Pride And Prejudice And Zombies spent its time lurking in development limbo. But thanks to finally locking in a script and a director (Burr Steers) and a rash of casting, it’s in production and Entertainment Weekly has grabbed a first look image.
The picture shows the Bennett sisters Elizabeth (Lily James), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), Mary (Millie Brady), Jane (Bella Heathcote), and Kitty (Suki Waterhouse) tooled up and ready to fight the “Sorry Stricken”, AKA the risen dead, who cause trouble for the family. And they thought finding marriageable mates was hard enough…
Still, they’re clearly all ready for combat, particularly our heroine, Elizabeth. “Even in the original story, Elizabeth’s a fighter and beyond her contemporaries in her ambitions and her ideas of women,” she tells EW. “She’s a badass warrior. She’s a ninja.”
With Steers re-writing a script that has been through the word processor of David O. Russell (who considered directing), the film also has Sam Riley (as Mr. Darcy) Jack Huston (Mr. Wickham) and more, including Matt Smith, Lena Headey, Sally Phillips and Douglas Booth. It’ll arrive on screens next year, finally.