Craig Gillespie officially signed on to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

After about a year of various directors attached to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, Craig Gillespie has officially signed on to the project. Gillespie recently completed a remake of FRIGHT NIGHT and previously helmed LARS AND THE REAL GIRL and MR. WOODCOCK. Lionsgate has reportedly had Gillespie pegged front-runner for a couple of months now.

“We are so excited to have Craig Gillespie on board this film. His sensibility spans from genre-bending horror to elegant character-driven comedy, which is perfect for this movie,” said Lionsgate president of Motion Picture Production Alli Shearmur.

The script is written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who adapted his own novel. The book itself is a take on Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, retaining about 3/4 of the original material and replacing the remainder with zombies, ninjas and more.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES will tell the timeless story of a woman’s quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers.