One wonders if Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would have gotten the enthusiastic studio push and subsequent production energy, despite several departing directors, had it been written and published now. The distilled Twilight aesthetic that has made it’s way into film like Beastly and Red Riding Hood has proven to be pretty weak tea, as the vast majority of those coattail riders have performed mildly (at best). Obviously Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a derivative of the even more painfully tired zombie trend, but these other films still indicate that the audience for female-geared supernatural romances has not remained as iron hot (for anything except the alpha property) as the studios would have liked. This is to say nothing about the film’s repeated directorial downgrades, from Oscar nominated David O. Russell, to the writer of many of Jack Black’s stronger projects, Mike White, and now finally to the Mr. Woodcock guy, Craig Gillespie.

The Lars and the Real Girl director still has to tie the final knots on his in-post Fright Night remake, but Deadline expects him to promptly sign on the line that is dotted and helm the film. They don’t mention if the shooting schedule has been adjusted, or anything about a start date, but if they intend on making this a 2012 joint those dates better not be too far off.

Blathering on about the cultural bankruptcy this film represents or how weak the source material supposedly is would be as boring and redundant as the book itself, so we’ll leave it there. Besides, word around the campfire is that the script is very strong.There’s still the chance Gillespie could do what the cool kids are doing and flirt heavily with the production and then ditch it for greener projects though, so maybe we leave this one be until it rolls…

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(via LatinoReview)