Pride and Prejudice and Zombies needs a new director, again – Mike White exits

Will Elizabeth Bennet ever get a chance to hack the heads off the brain-craving undead?

Once again, the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s hit parody book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES needs someone to wrangle the rotters, as director Mike White (THE SCHOOL OF ROCK) has departed the project just two months after coming aboard.

The filmmaker ultimately decided he couldn’t work the schedule between the period horror-comedy and an upcoming HBO project, so Lionsgate is already seeking a replacement. But the studio and producer Natalie Portman shouldn’t have much difficulty — before White signed on, they were also looking at people like Mike Newell, Neil Marshall, and David Slade for the position.

Director David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, THE FIGHTER) had previously been attached and actively working on the story before he moved on to a list of other potential movies like UNCHARTED, an Ice Cube action movie and 2 GUNS.

The mashup story follows heroine Elizabeth Bennet, whose attention is divided between the pompous Mr. Darcy and her own family’s war against hordes of flesh-eating shamblers.