Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and no director, as David O. Russell departs

Not too long ago, Natalie Portman was optimistic about getting her adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s hit parody book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (which she’s starring in and producing) up and rolling next year.

But now the project has been kicked into the grave, or at least back to the cemetery gates. Director David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, I ♥ HUCKABEES), who had been attached and actively working on the story, has now shambled away from the movie due to scheduling issues.

Russell (whose boxing drama THE FIGHTER opens in December) will instead be making OLD ST. LOUIS, his dramedy about “a divorced traveling toy salesman who reconnects with his teen daughter after years on the road.” That one features Vince Vaughn and Chloe Moretz (KICK-ASS), although Scarlett Johansson reportedly just left the project over a schedule conflict, coincidentlaly.

Portman and Lionsgate will undoubtedly be looking for a replacement director to help her into the frilly dress of heroine Elizabeth Bennet, whose attention divided is between the pompous Mr. Darcy and her own family’s war against hordes of flesh-eating rotters.