The movie adaptation of author Seth Grahame-Smith‘s strange combination of zombies and Jane Austen‘s classic, Pride and Prejudice, has faced a few complications on its road to the silver screen…specifically when it came to finding a director for the job, which has failed twice now.

Perhaps a third time will be the charm; it’s being reported that Craig Gillespie has now been hired to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Gillespie has previously directed Lars and the Real Girl, Mr. Woodcock, and episodes of The United States of Tara. His next movie will be the upcoming remake of the 1985 horror favorite, Fright Night, which stars Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, and Toni Collette.

We here at Geeks of Doom are big fans of the wave of hybrid novels, taking classic stories or historical figures and adding horrific elements such as zombies, monsters, aliens, and vampires, to name a few.

This crazy idea started with author Seth Grahame-Smith‘s alteration of the classic Jane Austen work, Pride and Prejudice, which was called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Many different types have followed like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and a lot of them even have movie projects in the works.

Being the lead horse it is, a movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies looked to be well on the way, and last December we found out that actress Natalie Portman would be producing the movie through her Handsomecharlie Films banner, and that she would also be starring in the role of Elizabeth Bennett…though sadly not all good things last.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
Paperbook
By Steve Hockensmith
Quirk Books
Release date: March 23 2010

Is classic literature your thing? Do you think everything could use a little zombie in it? Well you are in luck, because Quirk Classic have followed up on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, their extremely wild take on Jane Austen‘s Pride and Prejudice, with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls.

Quirk has definitely made itself known for these interesting takes on classic tales, especially Jane Austen books, which they’ve infused with zombies. Let me just start off by saying that this concept could have easily been used to pull in zombie fans with no depth or quality in writing, but author Steve Hockensmith definitely does not take this approach and brings a fresh spin to zombifying a classic tale.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls is a prequel to the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies telling the start of the Bennet’s story. Oscar Bennet, the father of the family, had dealt with the dreadfuls — the zombies — in the past when he was in the order and now the dreadfuls are back and he has to prepare his family for their attacks.

Seth Grahame-Smith has been busy on another book since releasing his popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and it takes the historical figure of President Abraham Lincoln and adds a few vampires. The book is titled Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and as you may have guessed, a new movie is being developed with none other than Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov attached as producers.

Grahame-Smith has been making quite a name for himself with his work taking classic literature and adding horrific spins to them. After Smith wrote Zombies, which of course took Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice and, well…added zombies, a whole new genre in literature has basically been created. Since that title’s release, many different authors have written their own takes on classic literature and characters with zombies and aliens and all sorts of fun and nasty beasties.

Click on over to the other side to check out a trailer that was made specially Grand Central Publishing for the release of the new book.

One of the more unexpected announcements to come along in recent memory was that Seth Grahame-Smith was re-working Jane Austen‘s classic novel Pride and Prejudice by adding a storyline that featured a zombie infestation. The title of the book would of course be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and whether you liked the book or not (Read: Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), it was one of the more entertaining ideas that we’d heard in a long, long time. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before this fun new idea was turned into a fun new movie, and that moment is approaching.

To kick things off right, the trades are reporting that Natalie Portman will not only star in the movie, but that she will also be producing it. Portman will produce through her own Handsomecharlie company, and she will appear in the role of Elizabeth Bennet, a firecracker of a woman who’s stuck in between fighting off zombies and a budding love with Mr. Darcy.