At first, I thought it was a joke when it was announced in January that Huffington Post columnist and producer/screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith was going to release a book based on British author Jane Austen’s often-filmed Pride and Prejudice to be called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Word is that the Hollywood studios are already in a bidding war over the movie rights.
But today, it was revealed that they are too late if they want to make the first P&P parody film of the Aughts.
For as Variety reported Monday evening, it is 1970s balladeer/rock star Elton John and his production studio Rocket Pictures who will start filming on Pride and Predator later this year. This one is a take on the book where an alien spaceship drops into the middle of the action and starts murdering all of the characters, with Will Clark directing; Clark, Andrew Kemble and John Pape with screenwriter credits, and Elton John providing music for the film… oh God, is it going to be a musical, too?
Now, it has become even more ludicrous because in digging for the facts of this story, I’ve discovered that eight months prior, young adult author Michael Thomas Ford got a three-book deal with Ballantine, starting with Jane Bites Back, a novel about the author who is now a vampire dealing with a 200-year old writers’ block and frustration over the fact that people who aren’t named Jane Austen are making more money off of her work than she ever did.
If we hear next that either Grahame-Smith or Elton John has died of ex-sanguination via puncture wounds on the neck, I think we know who to blame, don’t we?
Jacob Moore says:
…
Wow.
Gordon McAlpin says:
srsly wtf
Chad vieth says:
Okay, I know all the words, but those paragraphs makes no sense…
Hazel says:
Wait what did I just read?
Seriously I have absolutely no desire to see that movie or read those books.
Just… why?
Blackpanther says:
Somebody just make them stop. murdering. that. story.
This is what’s wrong with public domain.
MO says:
Please tell me this is some kind of very very early April Fool’s joke …
Erin says:
Is Elton John becoming the creepy Michael Jackson of the gay scene (no offense to anyone). He cannot be serious about this movie idea though… I can already picture horrible reviews coming from it.
nijireiki says:
….Is it bad that my first thought on reading this was “OH HELL YES”?
Matt says:
……. THERE IS NO GOD.
Alison P says:
I am strangely curious.
Gordon McAlpin says:
TWO OF THEM.
still… can’t… grasp…
transient says:
I love it. The original book is still out there, as are the movies based on it. I say let fly with the reimaginings. If you fear ’em. Ignore ’em.
I’m most excited about Grahame-Smith’s version. But I have to say, the Elton John one actually sounds like what League of Extraordinary Gentlemen should’ve been.
Tsiwt says:
I guess I’m either weird, or a really big Jane Austin fan, because they all sounds pretty neat to me.
Okay … so I am weird. If I rode a commuter train, I’d love to take along a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and enjoy people staring at me reading it.
And if you want aliens landing in England and fighting with 1900’s literary characters, you really want League of Extraordinary Gentleman 2. Don’t wait for the movie, just read the graphic novel source. 1 & 2 were so much better then the miserable Hollywood take.
Gerald says:
Haven’t the best literary meta-fiction books already been written? The Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde. Now there’s a good concept.
Start with The Eyre Affair.