Tag: pride and prejudice and zombies

What I’m trying to watch this week.

This is sort of a New Year’s Resolution: I have a pile of movies that I’ve been meaning to watch, only it’s been hard to make time. So I figure I’ll try to watch more movies a bit, here and there, and see if I can get back into the habit of seeing them all in one go. This week’s entries:

  • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Some liberties have been taken with the book, I think – and I mean the P&P&Z book, not the original. I remain adamant in my belief that Jane Austen would have cheerfully added the zombies herself if she lived in our era. And that she would have taken to the fantasy genre like a duck takes to water.
  • Warm Bodies: The movie that did not launch the zom-com genre, and I suppose that this was for the best. Still, I hear it was sweet, for given values of ‘sweet,’ and I surely can catch bits of it as I go.

You should just accept that I will fanboy over the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies film.

Because I am going to go watch this film.  I am going to watch the HELL out of this film. It’s coming out on February 5th, and the only reason why I haven’t reserved tickets yet is because I don’t really expect it to be sold out, more’s the pity:

I understand that the basic conceit became trite and overdone, but the original book was great fun. I look forward to seeing the movie version. Because sometimes things get to be just for me, OK?

I’m a little confused by the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies trailer.

I’m pretty sure that this one – supposedly dropping three days ago – is not particularly different than the one that dropped a month ago.  What gives? Am I missing something, here?

Moe Lane

PS: Of course I’m going to go see this goram movie.  They made the goram movie for people JUST LIKE ME.  Even if it sucks, I still have to go see it, because at least they tried.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter movie advances.

People apparently know my weaknesses: I was specifically sent a link to this report that they’re going ahead with a movie version of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  The guy who wrote it was also the same person who collaborated with Jane Austen in the classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: I’ve read AL:VH, and it’s… not a bad choice for a movie adaptation, really.  I mean, it’s one of those films where things are clear from the start: here is the beloved Abraham Lincoln, one of the chief gods in the American civic pantheon.  He will now kill evil vampires for you. There is very little need to expand on that further; hating that idea is almost like hating America itself.

And if you think that’s disrespectful, well: I’m pretty sure that if he was still around on opening night then Abe Lincoln would have been in the front row, laughing his ass off.  Then again, I also think that Austen would have loved P&P&Z, or at least the ninja.

Book of the Week: Planetary 4.

Planetary Vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology is the fourth and final collection of the main comic book series (there’s also Planetary: Crossing Worlds, which is a collection of three stand-alone crossovers [and worth it for the Batman one alone]) about mystery archeologists. I’ve only been waiting for it for two years (and thank goodness for birthday Amazon gift certificates, or I still would be waiting for it).

And so farewell to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Quirk Classics: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), which was also acquired via the intervention of birthday money. Such is the nature of the universe.

Book of the Week: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

I picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls as part of the Birthday Bounty; and it’s… pretty good, actually. Quirk Classics seems to have gotten a line on what is actually not a bad sub-genre, here: this particular prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies doesn’t work with Austen’s original books directly, but it manages to have fun with them while also taking them seriously. If Quirk keeps finding authors who can do that, they will have themselves a nice little print run.

And so, farewell to The Hobbit:.

Moe Lane

The Pride & Prejudice & Zombies Trailer.

(Via Liber Ex Machina) Am I weak?

Yes, I am weak. This isn’t the trailer – it’s a good mashup of the 2005 movie trailer – but there is going to be a real one.  It’ll be starring Natalie Portman, who appears to be also a Jane Austen fan; and they seem kind of enthused about sticking with what made Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fun.

Meanwhile, The Whisperer in Darkness movie continues apace.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Unlike the folks at Hot Air or Ace of Spades HQ, I’m actually reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (that wasn’t meant to be a knock; the book happened to come out the day before I happened to be in a bookstore*):

…so far, it’s pretty good. Set Grahame-Smith obviously took full advantage of the breakaway hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to have an actual writing career (as opposed to a writing career dedicated to making fun of the 43rd President of the United States, which is honestly a bit dead-end these days, in addition to being rather sad). Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter probably won’t win the Hugo, but so far it doesn’t insult the intelligence and it appears to be well-researched.

That being said, there are rumors of a movie: it’ll probably suck.

Moe Lane

PS: Oh, my:

*Yes. It grieves me, too, that major SF/fantasy publishers don’t send me books by my favorite authors in the hopes that I will mention them on my 800K hit a year blog. Truly, the universe is conspiring against me.

Truly.

Allow me to horrify all of you regarding Jane Eyre.

While I certainly agree that Jane Eyre is a great novel; but what it really needs is…

Well, it simply needs to be recast in a setting that’s had an unsuccessful alien invasion: one where the invaders attempted to create various kinds of psionic mutations in the captive human population. Jane can be a precognitive; Rochester could be some sort of former Man In Black with a mad pyrokinetic in his attic; and I guess that Rivers would be a telepathic mesmerist and secret agent of the last few aliens hiding out on Earth.

Hey, they put zombies into Pride & Prejudice, and the result’s been on the best seller list for months. And now they’re going to do Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters – no, really:

…so don’t tell me that wouldn’t sell.

Moe Lane