Jane Austen has been Hollywood gold for years now, but when did she become science-fiction platinum as well? Her novels are spawning a startling trifecta of bizarre science fiction films, plus a new fantasy novel.


We already reported that the as=yet=unpublished Austen/zombie novel Pride And Prejudice And Zombies has a movie deal. It's just what it sounds like: Pride And Prejudice, but with zombies.


And now Variety reports that Elton John - Elton John! - is producing a film called Pride And Predators. That's what it sounds like as well. It's Pride And Prejudice... except that alien monsters descend and start killing everyone in sight. Says John's fellow producer David Furnish:



It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect.

And then there's Lost In Austen, the successful British TV miniseries about ardent Jane Austen fan Amanda, who gets whisked back in time to Austen's era. She finds herself living out a Pride And Prejudice-esque storyline. (But no zombies or Predators, as far as I know.) Think Life On Mars, only Jane Austen-style. The movie version is being produced for Columbia by American Beauty's Sam Mendes, who knows a bit more about movies than Elton John.

Probably way better than all three of these movies combined will be Shades Of Milk And Honey, a "Jane Austen-style story with magic" by Campbell Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal. She just sold Shades, in a two-book deal, to Tor's Liz Gorinsky, according to Publisher's Marketplace.