Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher of Double Feature Films have optioned a feature film adaptation of Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion, the mash-up novel from author Alan Goldsher.

The novel tells one of the currently-popular alternate history stories where zombies and monsters and vampires and aliens are used as an added special ingredient to classic old stories or even to the lives of celebrities and historical figures. This began with Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and has gone as far as the recent announcement of the Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov collaboration on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

In Goldsher’s tale, John Lennon is turned into a zombie while still a young child in 1940 England. As time goes on, he grows into an incredibly talented musician who kills and re-animates Paul McCartney and George Harrison before adding “Drummer/Seventh Level Ninja Lord” Ringo Starr to the group, creating and amazing and talented band of (mostly) zombie musicians called The Beatles, who go set off to share their music with millions of adoring fans…some of which they eat. Eventually, however, they must face two deadly foes: 1.) Feared zombie-hunter Mick Jagger. 2.) Eight Level Ninja Lord Yoko Ono, who replaces their spiritual mentor and causes the band’s bond to falter.

Here’s what Stacey Sher had to say about the project:

To me, this sounds like it could be the best of these projects that we’ve heard about. For some reason, it’s hard to believe that it will actually get made, but I’m very much hopeful it will. It seems that people are on the fence about the idea; some love it and some seem to think it’s distasteful. These are the people who have lost their sense of humor years ago, and I really feel sorry for them.

Here’s the massive synopsis of the book from the Paul is Undead Facebook page:

It’s October 9, 1940, and an undead man haunts the underground sewers of Liverpool, England. Starving and covered with filth, the lone zombie slithers out of a loo located on the ground floor of Liverpool Maternity Hospital. Shuffling from room to room, the hungry being tracks down his prey: a wailing infant whose ripe, fresh brain will fill the raging emptiness in his belly and soul.

That infant’s name? John Lennon.

Fast forward fifteen years, when zombie Lennon, now a burgeoning musician, meets, kills, and reanimates fellow Liverpudlian wannabe-rocker Paul McCartney, creating an unstoppable partnership, and moving one step closer to realizing his dream of global domination. After welcoming newly zombie’d guitarist George Harrison and drummer/Seventh Level Ninja Lord Ringo Starr into the fold, Lennon and McCartney’s band cuts a swath of bloody good music and bloody violent mayhem across Europe, stealing the hearts, minds, ears, and brains of their adoring audiences.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to really meet the Beatles. “In Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion,” Alan Goldsher’s horror/comedy/rock “˜n’ roll mash-up, we find out the whens, whats, and whys of how the zombified Fab Four took over the world.

After conquering the charts, the Liverpudlian quartet conquers America, all while managing to escape eternal death at the hands of zombie hunter Mick Jagger, an assassination attempt by the most potent Ninja hate group in the United States, and the violent affections of New York City’s most smitten undead girls. The band returns to Europe, where, after some unsuccessful drug experimentation””who knew that LSD caused zombie leprosy?””and the speedy dismemberment of spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Eight Level Ninja Lord Yoko Ono enters the fray, and the band spins out of control.

Yes, the Beatles still want to take over the world, but can the lovable, horrifying mop tops sublimate their own zombie nature, remain atop the charts, and stay together for all eternity? Nah: they go through a brutal break up, almost destroying Abbey Road Studios in the process. But is this breakup permanent? After all, three of the Fab Four are zombies, and zombies live forever”¦

What do you guys think; zombie Beatle action: yay or nay?

[Source: Deadline Hollywood]