Craig Gillespie, director of the comedy Lars And The Real Girl, has been selected by Lionsgate to Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Gillespie will be replacing David O. Russell, who left the project late last year.
In addition to taking over the directorial reigns from Russell, Gillespie will be utilizing the script the previous director developed as well. As Gillespie told EW –
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.
It is interesting that Gillespie is working from Russell’s script, as the reason that Russell left the project was that he thought that Lionsgate proposed budget was not adequate enough to make the film that he write.
Prior to Gillespie getting the job, Severance director Christopher Smith was mentioned as a possible replacement. Mike White had briefly signed on to direct only to drop out siting a conflict with an upcoming HBO project.
