Back in October, David O. Russell pulled out of the highly-anticipated PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, the reason being that the director couldn’t agree on a schedule with lead Natalie Portman. Now the real story is coming out, and it just so happens that it was all about the Benjamins. Or lack thereof…
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Russell reveals that the proposed budget was the main sticking point:
“I thought at $40 to $50 million was a bargain price to make a “Sherlock Holmes”-style period action romance that happened to have zombies in it… The studio budgeted it as a genre zombie movie and gave me $25 to $28 million. I was like, that’s not cool. We have crazy big action sequences in it. It’s very commercial; we have a major romance. It’s a period film. And we’re doing it on the budget that we did “The Fighter?” It made no sense to me. That I found was frustrating.”
And you wouldn’t like David O. Russell when he’s frustrated…
Natalie Portman departed the film as well soon after; good news arrived when it picked up a director in Mike White, but he too ultimately jumped ship, citing – of course – a scheduling conflict. Whether that’s truly the case or not, PP&Z is having a hell of a time making it out of the starting gate.