By Megan Lara, available in shirt or poster form at RedBubble.

After chewing up and spitting out a long list of actresses, the recently resurrected Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie has found its star in Mirror Mirror‘s Lily Collins. This movie is happening, whether you like it or not.

The movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies hasn’t exactly had an easy time of it. It’s lost directors and stars aplenty. For a while it seemed like it might just… stay dead.

But alas. ‘Twas not to be.

Are you ready for a reanimation of Beetlejuice? Seth Grahame-Smith, writer of the box office disappointment Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is already moving on to his next project: Beetlejuice 2. Hit the jump for some details about the upcoming sequel to the Tim Burton classic!

Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is what most would call a “classic.”  Published in 1884 with illustrations from E.W. Kemble, Huckleberry Finn was not widely praised but rather criticized for its vernacular and what was seen as a crude writing style all around. It had its troubles at first but it wasn’t until the 20th century that it garnered a large amount of criticism for what people considered its racial stereotypes. Though it’s banned in certain schools (even to this day), the novel is often names as one of America’s Greatest novels. But what if it had…robots?

That’s where creators Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine come in. Much like Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Diani and Devine added a modern term into a classic piece of fiction. But Diani and Devine had a very particular goal. They didn’t just want to add zombies to Huckleberry Finn and create an alternate world, they wanted to make a point of it. So they replaced every instance of the “n-word” or “slave” with “robot,” to rather interesting effect. Hence, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Robotic Edition was born. Read on for our interview with Diani and Devine where they discuss their approach to the project, challenges, and why censorship is a bad idea. 

After working on Dark Shadows together, Tim Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith will reunite for the former’s return to the ooky-spooky land of stop-motion animation. It’s yet another project the new dynamic duo will be working on in addition to a possible Beetlejuice sequel. We like this friendship! It’s not just peanut butter and chocolate — it’s peanut butter, chocolate, and cinnamon.

It’s been a veritable carousel of suitors for the supernatural literary mashup, and now the third director to sign on to the adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has stepped down. Craig Gillespie has reportedly passed on the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith‘s novel, citing a disagreement about casting. The rumor is that they’re looking for an A-lister to play the lead role of Elizabeth Bennett. We’re kind of curious about who Gillespie had in mind that Lionsgate didn’t want, and vice versa. But why is this project such a chronic reject-a-thon? Are we … over zombies?

Before everyone gets as excited as I surely did, I’ll clarify on the headline: There is no official word that Michael Keaton is going to be reprising his titular role in the sequel to 1988′s Beetlejuice. I can’t even offer a follow-up “However …” because this is merely the very, very strong desire expressed by the screenwriter writing the script to the Beetlejuice sequel, Seth Grahame-Smith. But now that it’s been put into the ether … can Keaton really, really, really resist this? What do we have to do to make this happen, besides (obviously) saying his name three times and making it so?

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.

After making buddy-friends with Tim Burton on the set of Dark Shadows (by writing the screenplay), Seth Grahame-Smith and his producing partner David Katzenberg have signed a deal with Warner Brothers, for which they will be writing two new scripts. And one of those scripts, we hear, has a very good chance of being a reboot/sequel to Beetlejuice. Guys, if you wanted to resurrect Beetlejuice, you just have to say: “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.” But then, you’ll have to marry him, so we understand why you’d go through the trouble of making a deal with WB.