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Rumory

Blake Lively Taking the Lead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

by Jamie Frevele | 3:59 pm, September 24th, 2011


After Emma Stone and Natalie Portman turned down the role, rumor has it that Blake Lively has been offered the lead role of Elizabeth Bennett in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The literary mashup by Seth Grahame-Smith is hoping to start production in early 2012 after several delays, and they have yet to line up a star. Lively is thisclose to becoming a star beyond the CW after a string of well-received film roles — could this be the one to propel her even further? Would we even like this to happen? I say yes, and I’ll explain why.

If you’re wondering who Blake Lively is besides “that girl in the dippy teen show (Gossip Girl) who was in Green Lantern, which was horrible,” let’s hear her out for a moment — she had a decent supporting role in an Oscar-winning movie (The Town) and a limited release movie that got a decent response (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee). She is also currently shooting Oliver Stone‘s next movie, Savages. It seems like she is not messing around when it comes to her career, and doing something quirky and fun like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies might be a great project that will get people to look at her as a performer who can do more than play hot girlfriends. We already know she is willing to make fun of her own image (see both of her cameo appearances on Saturday Night Live, and the fact that she hosted, even if her show was a bit, ahem, lackluster ::coughcough::sexist Tiger Woods sketch::coughcough). But the bottom line is that Blake Lively looks like she wants to take interesting acting projects (that are not bloated summer movies) and is willing to do something unconventional and slightly risky.

As of right now, this is not official casting, it’s merely a rumor that she has been offered the role. Screen Rant compares PPZ to Grahame-Smith’s other film adaptation, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and how that movie didn’t run into this many delays because they weren’t seeking any A-list stars to play the roles. PPZ was supposed to start production this past summer, and when they were still without a lead actress, rumors began circulating that director Craig Gillespie (Fright Night) quit the project altogether. That’s not the case, and that is with whom Lively is said to have met for the lead role. (Also worth mentioning: Gillespie will be directing a script that was “retooled” by Marti Noxon, who wrote the Fright Night remake and was a co-writer of the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

This might be awesome casting if Blake Lively can manage an English accent. And zombie mayhem. If she gets this, we might find ourselves with another kickass leading lady to root for, and that is never a bad thing.

(via /Film, Screen Rant)

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  • Anonymous

    I don’t care if she has had decent roles and is looking to have good roles. She still isn’t an amazing actress.

  • Francesca M

    Honestly I don’t get Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I tried, but I would start reading the book enjoying the actual parts that were written by Jane Austen, then get annoyed when  a zombie attack would happen. Also I found the artwork with in the pages pretty wretched. I find the whole thing rather tacky. I love zombie movies, I love Jane Austen the whole thing should have been a slam dunk for me but instead I’m just bothered by this guy making money by slapping stuff into Austen’s work.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t have high hopes for the movie, since it doesn’t seem to be taken seriously by the studio. If Lively is in it, I won’t even bother to see it.

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  • Anonymous

    I assigned P&P&Z to a university composition class, and the experiment was successful!  For students who had never read Austin (sadly, a huge proportion of them), it was a chance to experience her writing with an undercurrent of modern humor.  I think it helped them to “get” the original story.  I was hoping for a good movie for this one, but I am not sure about Lively.  She did pretty well in GL, but I can’t see her carrying a strong character like Elizabeth Bennett.  Can she do the physical moves required of Elizabeth?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7G4SWUX2MCWWXLMYNN347JMIZY Frodo Baggins

    The only way this movie could have succeeded was if it came out the same year as the book. The fad is waning now. Get ready for a flop.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=742530231 Amanda Jean Carroll

    I guess I wouldn’t dismiss her altogether. She was pretty great in The Town, and she was doing an accent there (though I’m no expert on how well done it was, it sounded pretty good to me). On the other hand, casting Blake Lively doesn’t sound like a serious move to me, and to have her play as beloved a character as Elizabeth would be frustrating. Also, I think she’s too hot. Elizabeth isn’t the hot sister, and there’s very little chance of someone looking at Blake Lively and not immediately saying “wow!”. And ALSO, part of the fun of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is the juxtaposition of straight-laced Englishness and bloody zombie violence. That idea won’t work if your heroine looks like a blonde, tan, ripped action star — she has to look rather more English rose-y than that. 

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    YES!  That book, in theory, was the best of all possible everythings, but the ridiculous shoehorning of ninjas and the total disregard for the POINT of the book was infuriating.  I figure they can’t pin down a lead because the story just doesn’t work and only someone who was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl wouldn’t mind if the script is unreadable.
    Grumble.

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