Hearing that a studio may be fearful isn’t anything new. I know the immediate reaction is to scream “what a bunch of pussies,” but occasionally the restraint is what is needed to keep projects like The Thing remake from ruined everyone‘s lives. Such the case with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a project that’s been in development hell over at Lionsgate. Writer Marti Noxon was asked about the hold-out and gave a very “safe” response, one that ultimately I can side with. Still, I would love to see this historical mash-up in theaters.

“I really can’t say because my experience with Lionsgate was always great,” Noxon told Movies.com. “They are committed to doing it and really smart and my experience with Craig [Gillespie] was, again, great. Everybody seemed very pleased with where the script ended up, so it’s really a little baffling. I would say it probably, in my suspicions, has to do with the marketplace.”

She continues, “It’s very hard to sell a comedy-horror concept. As much as it’s already pre-sold and popular much in the same way ‘Fright Night’ was, it’s still a little risky. At the same time, you get a success like ‘Zombieland’, but then something will come along that makes people nervous again, so I feel like there’s a little bit of that problem, particularly on the casting side. It’s hard to find an actress who is super hot because they might not be inclined to take a risk on something that has a 70 / 30% chance of working, you know? I think it’s more to do with the marketplace than the logistics of the actual project.”

As previously reported, Craig Gillespie is no longer directing.