There have been casting rumors swirling around Pride and Prejudice and Zombies since the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup parody of the Jane Austen classic was first announced, but this has to be the strangest one yet: Twitch is reporting that Blake Lively has been offered the lead role of Elizabeth Bennet in the film.
From where we’re sitting, this makes little to no sense. Lively — while she does a lovely job of annoying us week after week as Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl — isn’t in the same league as actresses like Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, or Mia Wasikowska — who have all previously been mentioned as contenders for the part. Our friends over at The Playlist think that budget concerns (which were the reason why director David O. Russell handed over the reigns to Mike White who handed them over to Craig Gillespie) are the primary reason that she’s being considered. It certainly can’t be based on her previous big-screen performances in films like Green Lantern, The Town, or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
We’re curious: What do you think of Lively as a zombie slaying heroine? Are the casting gods seeing something in her that we’re just missing (you know, other than the fact that she’s really hot)?