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visit CINEMA FEATURE
18 FEBRUARY 2016
CINEMA
It is a truth universally
acknowledged that a
single man in possession
of good fortune, must be in
want of a wife,” declared Jane
Austen in her 1813 novel Pride
and Prejudice. It’s also a truth
universally acknowledged that “a
zombie in possession of brains,
must be in want of more brains.”
That’s the gist of Seth
Grahame-Smith’s 2009 novel
Pride and Prejudice and
Zombies, which adds a liberal
dose of the walking dead – and
some martial arts mayhem – to
the 19 th century polite society
depicted in Austen’s literary
classic.
Whilst screen adaptations of
Austen’s book have been plenty,
the film version of Grahame-
Smith’s parody rotted in
development hell for a number
of years, passing through a
revolving door of directors
(including David O. Russell and
Craig Gillespie) before rising
from the grave and landing in
the lap of Burr Steers.
“It didn’t land with me so
much as I hijacked it,” laughs
Steers. “The screenplay had
gone through a few incarnations
and had lost its momentum, so
I came in and rewrote it and
Director Burr Steers.
things started rolling and we
were able to get it made.”
It wasn’t so much the
cheeky mash-up promised
by the novel as the book’s
cover art that attracted
Steers to the project.
“That portrait of
a Regency lady
with half her jaw
ripped off was
EXTREME
PREJUDICEDirector Burr Steers takes on the challenge of introducing the walking dead to
the world of Jane Austen in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES.
He tells Scott Hocking how he did it.