The Bennet sisters from Jane Austen's beloved novel get a zombie-killing makeover in our first look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Elizabeth (Lily James), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), Mary (Millie Brady), Jane (Bella Heathcote), and Kitty (Suki Waterhouse) show off their swords and knives in this image, which teases how these characters have evolved from eligible single ladies to fierce warriors.

The project is based on Seth Grahame-Smith's novel, which takes Jane Austen's characters and plunges them into a world set 70 years after the zombies first took over the planet. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was stuck in development for several years, with David O. Russell writing the script and set to direct at one point, before Burr Steers came aboard in August.

The filmmaker revealed that the first thing he did was rewrite David O. Russell's screenplay, "beefing up" the roles of Darcy (Sam Riley) and Wickham (Jack Huston).

"The first thing I did was reinsert all the Pride and Prejudice beats."

While the characters in this adaptation are much different than they were first envisioned by Jane Austen, Lily James thinks that her character Elizabeth isn't too different from the original version.

"Even in the original story, Elizabeth's a fighter and beyond her contemporaries in her ambitions and her ideas of women. She's a badass warrior. She's a ninja."

Check out the first image below from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which started production last month and will be released sometime next year.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Photo