Cross Creek Pictures has delivered the most gothic of Jane Austin reboots with its production of a film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Parodying the frequently fraught tale of young love between couples from different social backgrounds by throwing in a gruesome shambling horde of zombies into the mix, it’s the Shaun Of The Dead of period dramas.
Release date
Cinema: The UK release date was on Thursday the 11th February 2016 following on from filming in the UK which kicked off in September 2014. It also had a limited release in the US on the 5th February 2016. The project has been a long time in the coming, so it’s good to see it finally arriving on the big screen. It went up against the likes of Deadpool, Concussion and Zoolander 2 when it arrived in cinemas in the UK.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download: For gothic horror action comedy fans or anyone with a slightly romantic inclination towards zombies, the Blu-ray and DVD release date in the UK will be on the 27th June 2016, a little under a month after the US release on the 31st May.
Plot
For anyone that has either read Jane Austin’s classic novel of manners, Pride And Prejudice, or seen one of the many straight adaptations, you’ll know that it all centres around the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London, near which Mr Bennett lives with his frivolous wife and five unmarried children. When Mr Bingley, a wealthy and eligible young gentleman, moves into a local country estate, bringing with him his friend and potentially even more eligible bachelor, Mr Darcy, the Bennett family matriarch goes into overdrive in a bid to wed them to any of her daughters.
Social disparities lead to all sorts of 19th century slights, follies and fancies, but if young love, honour and decency aren’t enough to contend with, the well known characters also have the walking dead to deal with too. From the look of the picture above it looks like the young Bennett girls take to the challenge almost as merrily as they take to their husband hunting duties, leaving the scene set for even more twists and turns to what was already an intricate plot.
Cast
Perhaps the biggest name confirmed to be in on the Pride And Prejudice And Zombies cast is the 11th Dr Who himself, Matt Smith (Terminator: Genysis), taking on the role of heir to the Bennett estate of Longbourn, Mr. Collins. He’s joined by Sam Riley (On The Road), who takes on the pretty big shoes of Colin Firth in the role of sneering aristocrat Mr Darcy, as well as Jack Huston (Kill Your Darlings, American Hustle) as love rat, Mr Wickham, and Douglas Booth (Jupiter Ascending) as Mr Bingley.
In terms of the Bennett girls, pictured above, you’ve got Lily James – who you might recognise from Downton Abbey – as Elizabeth, Bella Heathcote (Dark Shadows) as Jane, Suki Waterhouse as Kitty, Ellie Bamber as Lydia and Millie Brady as Mary. Charles Dance (The Imitation Game) and Lena Headey (Dredd) have also been confirmed in the cast.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download special features
The DVD release will include the following extras:
- Two special featurettes
- Courtship, Class and Carnage: Meet The Cast
- From Austen to Zombies: Adapting a Classic
The Blu-ray and digital download extras include:
- Deleted Scenes
- Mr. Collins Line-o-rama
- Gag Reel
- Four special featurettes:
- The Badass Bennet Sisters
- Creating the Unmentionables
- Courtship, Class and Carnage: Meet The Cast
- From Austen to Zombies: Adapting a Classic
Production
It’s been a long road to completion for Pride And Prejudice And Zombies with a number of directorial and writing changes along the way, but with Burr Steers confirmed in the directors chair and helping to finish off David O. Russell’s (Silver Linings Playbook) original script, things have finally moved on for the project. Marti Noxon, executive producer and writer of the modern day Gothic pseudo-parody, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, has also contributed to the completion of the final screenplay.
First impressions
Though a trailer took almost as much time to arrive as the film did, you can see the official video below to get a glimpse of Lily James in action as the zombie hunting Elizabeth Bennett. It looks like fun but could go south quickly if it doesn’t tap into the sheer unadulterated fun element that would make it a success.
The little graphic art from Cross Creek Pictures to the right also gives you a flavour of what to expect from the Pride And Prejudice And Zombies film, so maybe it’ll be zombie bliss after all. Everything looks pretty prim and warlike in the still above, but the artwork to the right implies that Lily James’ Elizabeth Bennett might be getting a bit of a visual revamp on the slightly dowdy look sported by Jennifer Ehle in the BBC TV adaptation back in 1995.
We’re looking forward to seeing how the movie shapes up, and the trailer below does a pretty good job of instilling confidence in us that it could work well. With a David O. Russell script, quite a lot of bright young talent and the genius of both Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith’s novels behind it we should be in for a brilliant zombie fest of a comedy of manners.
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