Elton John’s Rocket Pictures hopes to make the first Jane Austen adaptation to which men will drag their girlfriends.Will Clark is set to direct “Pride and Predator,” which veers from the traditional period costume drama when an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about.

Shooting will begin in London later this year. John exec produces, and his Rocket partners Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish are producing.

Clark, who directed award-winning short “The Amazing Trousers,” wrote the script with Andrew Kemble and John Pape.

“It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect,” Furnish said.

John will supervise the music, as he does in each Rocket-produced film.

The company is in production on the CG-animated “Gnomeo and Juliet” for Miramax/Disney; James McAvoy and Emily Blunt voice the title characters. Rocket is also behind the Sundance series “Spectacle: Elvis Costello With …”

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I took this from Seth Grahame-Smith’s Amazon.com blog. You might remember that he is the guy that wrote came up with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies…

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Not out yet but available for pre-order from Amazon.com

[taken from The Stranger]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.

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Not sure what to think about this. The idea of introducing Jane Austen’s work to a group that wouldnt normally be interested is appealing. And I literally asked a friend of mine just this morning… who DOESN’T like zombies? But meddling with something as classic as Jane Austen’s P&P?

All my librarians are thrilled about this. We are doing a Teen Symposium in a few weeks with a Zombie theme. When I told them I ran across this, they almost jumped out of their skin they were so excited. They are truly looking at this as a gateway drug to more Austen. However, I know some purists that are going to be livid…

I decided to ruffle some feathers. I posted discussions on the two Jane Austen groups I am a member of on Shelfari.com. Here is what they had to say…

“I think that sounds fantastic!!… I would definitely read it just to see how they work that into being.”

I think it sounds hilarious. It might be a fun read.

From the AustenBlog… We also were shown an excerpt, and it is basically the text of P&P with zombie stuff added. It’s not really a rewrite. We’re not entirely sure the joke will hold up throughout the whole novel, and we actually prefer ninjas with our classics, but we’ll see in April!

General consensus seems to be good! I must say that I am curious to see how they added “zombie stuff”. I looked up this author to see what else he has done… this doesnt look good… How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills, The Big Book of Porn: A Penetrating Look at the World of Dirty Movies, (the only one that looked mildly promising) Pardon My President: Fold-And-Mail Apologies for 8 Years of George W. Bush were the top 3 titles on Amazon.com.

This should be interesting!

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UPDATE!

Hollywood studios are bidding to turn a radical reworking of Austen’s most popular book, now called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a parody to be published in April, into a blockbuster movie.

Desperate for new ideas, studio chiefs hope “P&P&Z” will mark the bloody birth of a feral offspring of classic British literature: “monster-lit”.

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ADDITIONAL UPDATE!!

This is a letter from the author of P&P&Z to Austenites everywhere…

To Janeites Everywhere…

9:50 AM PST, February 4, 2009

Margaret C. Sullivan — fellow Quirk author and “Editrix” of AustenBlog, has fired a warning shot across my bow (actually, I believe her words were “back off Zombie Boy”).

Apparently, my posts have given the impression that I’m some anti-Austen upstart looking to pick a fight with the purists.  Not so.  I AM reacting to the bile I’ve found in a lot of the talkback forums out there.  Namely people hating on the book (and me) without bothering to read it.

For the record, I love Jane Austen.  She wrote comedies.  She was subversive and snarky and wore bonnets.  Good qualities, all.  And I love Pride and Prejudice.  I’d wager I read it cover-to-cover thirty times while writing P&P&Z.  It was the most fun I’ve ever had writing.  Seriously.

So I offer you my mea culpa.  I promise not to lump Janeites in with the random haters around the nets.

– Zombie Boy