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

Rumory

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.

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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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