It was never going to be easy for Lionsgate to replace David O'Russell and star Natalie Portman for their genre-bending Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After all, they are two Hollywood mega-talents who look likely to be there or thereabouts come Oscar time next year and that kind of talent isn't easy to attract. Although nobody with the stature of O'Russell was interested in jumping on board, the studio had a lot of experienced filmmakers circling Russell (Mike Newell, Neil Marshall and David Slade) but instead they have gone left-field and chosen Mike White to direct the adaptation of the Seth Grahame-Smith's zombie infected Jane Austen literary classic revisioning that will shoot next year. White has only previously directed one movie (The Year of the Dog) and is better known for writing the Jack Black comedies Orange County and School of Rock or for his acting turns, none of which really makes him the obvious choice to direct this. But I like that notion. This isn't an ordinary Austen costume drama either. You kind of know the mid-level genre material Marshall and Slade would undoubtedly turn in and Newell hasn't been an interesting filmmaking for years now. Why not give White the ball and see what he can do with it? The likes of Scarlett Johansson (for Bennett) and Bradley Cooper (for Darcy) were circling previously but now with a director hired I guess you can chuck all those link stories out of the window.