Here is another project that I won’t believe is happening until it hits theaters. After David O. Russell and Mike White left the directing chair, Fright Night‘s Craig Gillespie has been set for the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith‘s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
With actresses such as Emma Stone, Natalie Portman. Mia Wasikowska, Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway all departing the project, Twitch reports our latest contender. Coming off the bomb of the summer, Green Lantern, Blake Lively has reportedly been offered the part. The Gossip Girl actress broke out in the film world with The Town and will also be seen in Oliver Stone‘s Savages next year.
While it hasn’t been confirmed she will play Elizabeth Bennet, the actress has met with Gillespie, who gave her a formal offer. Gillespie will be going off David O. Russell‘s script, which was rewritten by his Fright Night screenwriter Marti Noxon. For those unfamiliar with the plot, Grahame-Smith takes the Jane Austen classic and simply adds zombies.
The author was also behind Timur Bekmambetov‘s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which hits theaters next summer. I could see Lively kicking some zombie ass, but these tongue-in-cheek, self-aware genre-mixed flicks seem to continually fail at the box office. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is awhile if we ever see this one.
What do you think of Lively as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies lead?