[Shaun]

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8407986.stm

Natalie Portman is set to slay the undead in a movie adaptation of best-seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it is reported.

Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, according to trade publication Variety.

The novel, by Seth Grahame-Smith, takes Jane Austen's classic and adds a new subplot in which the story takes place as the dead rise from the grave.

The five Bennett sisters are all trained in deadly martial arts.

Portman is also set to produce the film for Lionsgate.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was first published in April 2009 by Quirk books, got to number three on the New York Times best-seller list.

A prequel has been announced, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, which is due to be published in March 2010.

Quirk books have also released another novel based on an Austen work, entitled Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.