Mike White To Officially Direct 'Pride And Prejudice And Zombies'

The man behind Chuck and Buck is set to dress well and suck...brains, that it is. Mike White, the writer of School of Rock, Nacho Libre and the aforementioned Chuck and Buck is now officially set to direct his sophomore feature film – an adaptation of the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith, which tells the classic Austin love story but fills in gaps with zombie comedy and horror. Think white ruffles and hair bonnets covered with blood and guts.

White, whose only feature film directorial experience before this was the Molly Shannon comedy Year of the Dog, was first on a short list to direct the film and then highlighted as a front runner because of his unique ability to fuse tones and genres. He's currently working on the HBO show Enlightened with Laura Dern. David O. Russell was long set to direct the film before leaving the project. In his time, he brought Natalie Portman on as a star, who then left but stayed on as a producer. Read more after the jump.

Now with a director in place, Lionsgate – who controls the property – can focus on getting it cast. Personally, I think it would be great to get the cast of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, even if they are a bit older and more expensive now. It would then be such a beautiful parallel with the book, which is well over 75% just the original text. Instead, names that have been tossed about include Scarlett Johansson and Bradley Cooper.

I totally understand why Lionsgate would go with White here – all of his films do tend to blend both funny and serious tones including several that go much, much darker. However, having not seen Year of the Dog, I'm not sure about his visual prowess, something that's certainly needed for a film like this. One thing is for certain, it won't look like a Joe Wright movie. Not that that's a bad thing.

Now that this is official, what do you think about White coming aboard the project? Do we have any fans of the source material out there?

Source: Deadline