Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Tagged Articles at Cinematical
The Geek Beat: More Sense & Sensibility ... Less Sea Monsters
Filed under: The Geek Beat »
As the authoress of The Geek Beat had professed a desire to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the publishing company of Quirk Books of Philadelphia did thoughtfully send a copy with their compliments, and expressed their desire that I review it if it should please me to do so. I had the highest of hopes that the novel would be excellent sport, and make for a fine adaptation should an honorable gentleman or lady of fortune wish to option the work. Lud! I was to be disappointed in this regard, and should any of my readers wish to inform themselves as to my thoughts and feelings on the honorable Seth Grahame-Smith, they may do so here.
As Pride and Prejudice and Zombies proved to be a veritable success at its coming out, and as Regency satire is all the crack, Q has looked to repeat itself with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. The publisher again showed great charity, and sent your humble authoress a copy in the hopes that I might find it agreeable to my tastes.
Lawks! Desist, dear authors and publishers! Stop these bacon-brained notions. I warrant that such ideas were conceived with much mirth, and I confess freely to entertaining such fancies in my spare hours after English class. But amusements that seem so very droll while bandied in idle chatter are too often spent by the time one realizes them fully, and such is the case with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I confess, I could not even finish the novel, so weary was I of the joke. For your pleasure, I have embedded the book's "trailer" below the jump, for I am certain that if you are amused by it, you will not tire of the book's conceit.
As Pride and Prejudice and Zombies proved to be a veritable success at its coming out, and as Regency satire is all the crack, Q
Lawks! Desist, dear authors and publishers! Stop these bacon-brained notions. I warrant that such ideas were conceived with much mirth, and I confess freely to entertaining such fancies in my spare hours after English class. But amusements that seem so very droll while bandied in idle chatter are too often spent by the time one realizes them fully, and such is the case with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I confess, I could not even finish the novel, so weary was I of the joke. For your pleasure, I have embedded the book's "trailer" below the jump, for I am certain that if you are amused by it, you will not tire of the book's conceit.
Here Comes Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Filed under: Comedy », Deals », RumorMonger », Newsstand »
Seth Grahame-Smith is striking while the iron is hot. Fresh off the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, he's set to introduce the world to another "lost" tale of the undead. Meet Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.According to Publisher's Weekly, the story is a "loose sketch" of Lincoln's life, but with the shocking twist that the iconic president wasn't just trying to keep that house from dividing against itself, he was staking the undead! How's that for multi-tasking?
Grahame-Smith sold the proposal for a shocking six figures on Wednesday ... and the reason we're talking about a book deal here on Cinematical is because the movie rights are already being shopped around. Of course, shopped around doesn't mean purchased, but given that P&P&Z has reportedly been snapped up by someone (the official announcement has yet to be made) you can bet another studio will want a piece of the fake memoir pie.
As you know, I wasn't impressed with P&P&Z (and finding out that Grahame-Smith was assigned the task explains a lot about its slapdash style), but I took it in the intended spirit. But now the "Guess who fought the undead?" joke is really running thin. Who will visit the underworld next, I wonder? William Shakespeare: Necromancer? William Wallace Versus the Werewolves? The Tudors as Voodoo Priests? The possibilities are as endless as they are eye-rolling.
The Geek Beat: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Filed under: Horror », Fandom », Home Entertainment », The Geek Beat »
It's Tuesday, the perfect day to review Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and for you to find out whether this piece of gory chick lit is worth your time. Most importantly, with studios battling over the rights, could it produce a chick flick with braaaains as I predicted back in February?
As a book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is pretty disappointing. Seth Grahame-Smith's claims that 85% of it is Austen's original is an understatement. I would raise that estimate to 95%, and am amazed a publisher handed an author any money for so little original content. Towards the middle, I actually began skimming (hey, I nearly know the original by heart) and would slow down and read only when "zombie" or "unmentionable" appeared. Just to err on the side of caution, I kept my original P&P at my elbow and when I came across dialogue that struck me as a bit modern, I'd pick up Austen. 99% of the time, it was original, and unaltered by Grahame-Smith. But it's to his credit that when he does add dialogue, it's almost always spot on, and seamless with the original.
The real shame is that Grahame-Smith didn't create something more original. There was some real potential here if he had just broken free from the original plotline, gave us an origin story, and beefed up the Bennet sisters. There's still too much fussing about balls, Brighton, and Mr. Bingley to believe any of them, save Elizabeth, are trained warriors. I understand the joke here is to "restore" the lost zombie story, but what is "restored" felt more like he just copied and pasted "zombie," "Katana sword," and "many kills" in places where it would be the least obtrusive.
Who (Besides Us) Will Win the Battle of the Jane Austen Revamps?
Filed under: Action », Classics », Comedy », Horror », Romance », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom », Scripts », DIY/Filmmaking »
Jane Austen wasn't just on Masterpiece Theater this month, but on every horror, sci-fi, and film site. First came news that Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was in the middle of a fierce Hollywood bidding war. Austen fans barely had time to rant or rejoice before Sir Elton John announced he'd be bringing aliens to Meryton with Pride and Predator. If you were wondering whether the similarities were coincidental or not, Entertainment Weekly has the answer. They caught up with Graham-Smith, who explained how we ended up with two horror revamps. "After I had turned in the book, I was having a meeting with someone and described Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and he said, 'You know, I think there's a script out there called Pride and Predator.' It had been languishing in development for years or something. And then, of course, we're all excited about the heat and the Internet buzz about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and, lo and behold, Sir Elton swoops in. But I don't feel it lessens our chances. For every Dante's Peak there's a Volcano. For every Step Up there's a Stomp the Yard. I say the more mangling of literary classics the merrier."
Forget Zombies; Aliens Now to Invade Jane Austen
Filed under: Comedy », Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », RumorMonger », Scripts », Remakes and Sequels »
This and that volcano movies, his and her asteroid flicks, rival Capote biopics -- it seems only cosmically fair that we may be spoiled with forthcoming Pride and Prejudice riffs that include both zombies AND aliens. Better yet, what was Jane Austen's classic really missing if not the participation of Elton John?If Variety is to be believed, it appears that John will serve as executive producer and music supervisor on this live-action adaptation, in which "an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about." My God, it's as if they swapped out Beowulf in Outlander for P&P (and, for the record, I'm perfectly okay with that).
So be honest, which one are you guys and girls more excited for: corsets stained by the blood of the victims of the undead, or corsets stained by the blood of the victims of extraterrestrials? Whoever wins, I'm pretty sure we do too.
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' Finally, a Chick Flick With Braaaiins!
Filed under: Action », Classics », Comedy », Horror », Romance », RumorMonger », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
The book has been the talk of the blogosphere for weeks -- and now the studio bidding war means we can write about it. According to both the Sydney Herald and the Times, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in the middle of a full blown studio bidding war.The book by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith doesn't hit bookstores until April, but given the buzz, it's already a hit. (Yes, that is the cover to your right.)
Zombies is a slight reworking of the Austen original, offering the "lost chapters" of Pride and Prejudice that reveal Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy fell in love in the midst of a zombie attack. Evidence of the attack apparently survived even in the original novel, as Grahame-Smith points out: "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."
Obviously. Though I suspect the book will be more hype than original substance (85% of it is the original Pride, the rest is zombie), and I find the zombie obsession a bit wearing, I can't resist this concept. As a girl, I'm obligated to love Austen (I wept a little when I visited her house in Surrey), and as a film geek, I love gratuitous action and gore above all else. To see Elizabeth Bennet fighting zombies ninja style (for real -- Mr. Darcy teaches her how) means I can die a happy girl.
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