Check Out the Butt-Kicking Bennet Sisters in First 'Pride & Prejudice & Zombies' Image

The long and messy history of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is well-known at this point. The struggle to find a lead actress took years, with some pretty big names turning a role in the horror mash-up down. But the search ended when Lily James signed on to play Jane Austen's hero, Elizabeth Bennet, and now the first image from the film is here.

If these don't look quite like Bennet sisters you've imagined from the Austen-era classic, it's because they're all highly trained ninja. The film is like the original tale in just about every way otherwise...except for that whole zombie invasion thing going on.  Bella Heathcote, Ellie Bamber, Millie Brady, and Suki Waterhouse play her sisters, with Sam Riley, Matt Smith, and Jack Huston co-starring as the handsome gents in their lives.

Directed by Burr Steers with a script co-written by David O. Russell, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies opens next year.

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Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei Learn to Love Again in Trailer for Rom-Com 'The Rewrite'

For a good stretch in the '90s and early 2000s you couldn't spit without hitting a new romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant. He was basically the poster boy for the entire genre, but after the $145M-grossing Music and Lyrics in 2007 Grant has been going in a different direction with Cloud Atlas and The Man from UNCLE. Now he's back doing what he knows best in The Rewrite, a comedy that sees Grant romancing Marisa Tomei.

Marking Grant's fourth collaboration with director Marc Lawrence, the film follows an award-winning screenwriter who has hit the skids. Broke, divorced, and in the midst of a midlife crisis, he takes a job teaching a screenwriting course at a small college, which is where he meets and falls in love with a single mom (Tomei) working towards her degree. It's as light and fluffy as you might expect, with Grant showing he can still play the lovable cad when called upon. Honestly, the first thing I thought of while watching the trailer was Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts, which did nothing for me.

Also starring Alison Janney, Bella Heathcote, J.K. Simmons, and Chris Elliott, The Rewrite opens in the UK on October 8th but has yet to secure a US date.

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Lily James, Jack Huston, Sam Riley, and Bella Heathcote Join Revived 'Pride & Prejudice & Zombies'

Want to know what's fun? Recounting the troubled history of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, an adaptation that has seen many directors and even more stars attached to it over the years. It started with David O. Russell, who quickly got too big for something like this, then Mike White and Craig Gillespie had a cup of coffee as director before dropping out. And the list of actresses who circled the role of Elizabeth Bennett is long with Natalie Portman and Emma Stone just the beginning. But last year things seemed to perk up with Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) coming on to helm, and Lily Collins agreeing to star. Then....nothing. But like the undead the film has risen from the grave once again with a whole new cast and an actual start date.

Deadline reports that a Lily swap has taken place and now it will be Downton Abbey's Lily James starring in the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's zombie period piece. She'll be take the Elizabeth role, joined by Sam Riley (Maleficent) as Mr. Darcy, Bella Heathcote (Dark Shadows) as Elizabeth's sister, and Jack Huston (American Hustle) in talks for an unspecified role which will probably be Mr. Bingley.  For an idea of what to expect, just know that Grahame-Smith is the same guy who gave us Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a mediocre book which was adapted into a terrible movie.

And y'know what? It looks like this time something will actually happen because production is to begin next month (!!!), utilizing a script credited to O. Russell and Steers. There is still a lot of talent here with O. Russell's screenplay and Portman producing, but zombie movies don't have the same appeal they did a few years ago, and just mashing up genres may not be enough to change that.

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Bella Heathcote, Lily James, and Margot Robbie testing for 'Cinderella'

Disney has been playing catch up with their live-action version of Cinderella ever since Mark Romanek left the project, only to be replaced as director by Kenneth Branagh. Despite Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Alicia Vikander, and more circling the title role at one point or another, they've still failed to find someone to try on the glass slipper. Well now three more names have emerged as the search continues.

Dark Shadows star Bella Heathcote, Downton Abbey's Lily James, and Pan Am's Margot Robbie are testing for the role, with Deadline stating that one of them will "walk away" with it. Heathcote is the best known of them all and has the most cred, having recently been the best thing about David Chase's Not Fade Away. She also has a similarly unconventional look as Mia Wasikowska, who performed well in Disney's $1B-grossing Alice in Wonderland. Robbie will be seen next in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, while James had a brief role in Wrath of the Titans.

Whoever wins the role will join Cate Blanchett, who has stuck around since the beginning as the wicked stepmother. Production on Cinderella is targeted for this fall.

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