UPDATE: According to Deadline as of November 5th, Lionsgate has put out an official offer to Mike White. He’ll likely accept, making him the official director of Seth Grahame-Smith’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES.
What the hell happened to Jon Demme?!?
Remember a couple weeks ago when, as a result of Natalie Portman and David O. Russell jettisoning from the production, we let you know who might be stepping in to star and direct Seth Grahame-Smith’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES? Mr. Demme’s name was thrown in the ring, as was LET ME IN’s Matt Reeves (who’s now out for sure) and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS’ Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Well, it looks as if a frontrunner has emerged…
The L.A. Times has it that Mike White (also in our original article) has taken the lead to helm the Grahame-Smith adaptation for Lionsgate and Darko Entertainment. Although relatively less experienced, White (above) is believed to have enough of a background in dark comedy to aptly handle the amorphous tone of the ZOMBIES text.
White, who most recently directed YEAR OF THE DOG, also wrote SCHOOL OF ROCK and ORANGE COUNTY. He currently has Edgar Wright’s THEM announced (as writer), and is in pre-production to direct a TV series called “Enlightened.”
We’ll open it up to you. Think White is the man for the ZOMBIES job? Is there another name in the bunch you would rather see (Demme for instance), or another name entirely? Think this project is rapidly falling apart?