Craig Gillespie talks about Adapting PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
It was officially announced recently that Lars and the Real Girl director Craig Gillespie was set to direct the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This has the potential to be an awesome flick, and I think Gillespie will do a great job bringing it to life.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly Gillespie talks about the film project, and what he's got planned for it. There were two other directors attached to the project before Gillespie, which included David O. Russell and Mike White. So, there was a lot of work already done on the films development. When asked if he was going to start from scratch he said,
No, we have a really great script that we’re just going to do a polish on and then get going, really…. David Russell wrote the script off the book, and it has such a great mix of humor and horror. I just love being able to juggle those two aspects. The humor is inherent in the Pride and Prejudice side, but taking that and accenting it with zombies is just a brilliant and fun idea. And there are such strong female characters, which is nice to have. It’s a great clash.
If the script is good then why start from scratch, right? There was a lot of work that went into, so it's cool that they are using Russell's adaptation. The director goes on to talk about what sold him on the project.
I was aware the project was around, but at the time it wasn’t available. Then it became available. I was still finishing up Fright Night, but in the meantime I called my agent and said, “I want to see that script." He said "I’m not sure we’d be able to figure out the timing.” But I read the first 30 pages and said, “I want to do this.” It’s just such a great combination between classic literature — Jane Austen, and meshing it with zombies. The challenge of meshing those two genres is really exciting to me.
He then goes on to describe what the movie will ultimately end up being.
There’s a lot of action in this. There are a lot of big set pieces in this film, which is exciting. Basically, as I said to the studio, at the core it’s a love story between Elizabeth and Darcy. If that’s not working, and we’re not rooting for those two get together through all this craziness, the movie is not going to work. That’s key to me, to have this great emotional story going on, and all this craziness.
So in the end it's going to be a nice love story in the midst of zombie madness... awesome. I just can't help but think that no matter what this is going to turn out being a solid zombie movie that most everyone that sees it will enjoy. What are your thoughts on the film adaptation?
To read the rest of the review head on over to EW. Just click on the link in the big yellow reference box below.