14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not that rare that Hollywood turns to the classics to bring something new to the audiences. From that to taking an old story, mixing it with contemporary elements that moviegoers are familiar with, and selling it as something new is just a step. “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith does just that, and Hollywood is already dying for the rights to the story, the Sunday Times informs.
Although the book is not even out yet, it has already managed to cause a frenzy at all the major movie studios, the publication says. So much so, that a bidding war has reportedly already commenced to see who is the first to get to turn this dazzling story of damsels in distress (and corsets) and flesh-eating zombies into the next hit at the box-office.
What Grahame-Smith, a television comedy writer, did to Jane Austen’s classic story of love and life is infuse some undead creatures in it, so as to bring it to modern audiences without making it lose any of its original appeal. The new book is “85% original material,” Grahame-Smith tells the Sunday Times, and is mostly based on what he thought was the beginning of a zombie story that Austen could not put on paper given the times back then.
“It quickly became obvious that Jane [Austen] had laid down the blueprint for a zombie novel. Why else in the original should a regiment arrive on Lizzie Bennet’s doorstep when they should have been off fighting Napoleon? It was to protect the family from an invasion of brain-eaters, obviously.” the writer reveals for the aforementioned publication. When he’s that convinced of what he’s got on his hands, several media outlets have pointed out, how could not the Hollywood movie studios crowd to get the rights to his story?
“I hated her when I was forced to read Austen in school, but when I started rereading I realized she was a brutal, but very funny, satirist. I can only aspire to be as mean-spirited as she could be.” Grahame-Smith also tells the Sunday Times. Whether he has succeeded or not is still to be seen, as also is whether his upgraded story will be turned into film. Keep an eye on this space to see what comes out of this.