CBR's live coverage of San Diego's Comic-Con International continues with "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, which is of course loosely based on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," the film hits theaters in 2016.

Dalton Ross from Entertainment weekly moderates the panel. Grahame-Smith took the stage alongside Burr Steers, Douglas Booth, Jack Huston, Bella Heathecote, Matt Smith, Sam Riley, and Lily James.

After a preview, the cast talked about their characters. Huston said "it's very true to the novel, but there are a lot of new twists."

Riley says his character is "misunderstood, but he's a snob."

Booth said he read Grahame-Smith's book to "know who I wanted my character to be before I arrived on set."

"Zombies are exactly what 'Pride and Prejudice needed, I think," Smith joked when asked about the strangeness of the project.

Grahame-Smith said "Burr absolutely understand the tone of this stupid ridiculous thing, and the only way to go about it is to not wink once."

"It's playing the most straight 'Pride and Prejudice' ... and then zombies show up and you're like what the fuck is going on."

James said "the fun thing was we had daggers hidden absolutely everywhere, I think I had daggers in my [under]pants."

Booth said "in our movie, when a person is first bitten, you can't really tell. So there's a sense of paranoia, because they can blend into society.

Asked whether he sees any similarities between himself and Mr. Collins. "I hope not. Because he keeps getting rejected," Smith said. "But he's quite kind and he likes muffins. And I like to think I'm quite kind, and I like muffins."

James said her Liz Bennet is "fiercer" than Austen's original, who while strong was perhaps not "really badass."

"They're not really changing the characters all that markedly," Riley said. "It's still Mr. Darcy with his flaws and prejudices, but he's got a big samurai sword.

Grahame-Smith said "you're not going to improve Jane Austen, especially not me. So what I did with the book was, take all their character traits and turn them up to eleven. Lizzy is strong in the book, so now she's a badass."

Huston said his Mr. Wickham is perhaps more changed than other characters, but "is still the Wickham you know."

"It's all the beats from 'Pride and Prejudice,' stood up," Booth said, just set against an extreme background. "How does Mrs. Bennet try to marry off all of her daughters while all this was going on?"

James said "I accidentally stepped on an actor's head, really hard - I thought it was a dummy, but it was a person. I felt really bad!"

Booth likened a zombie outbreak to real-life historical plagues, which "made it easier" to get his head around the period aspect of the movie.

Grahame-Smith said that "the people who deserve their comeuppance in the movie probably do, but in different ways" from his book.

The novelist said that he's been interested in the trend "PPZ" started, but to him the idea was very specific to "Pride and Prejudice." "It's amazing how seemlessly it fits to introduce a zombie apocalypse into 'Pride and Prejudice' ... and I haven't been able to find another book that does that."

Asked what Jane Austen would think of his book, Grahame-Smith said he didn't expect anybody to read it -- and when it caught on, "I was terrified the Janeites would come after me." He said, too, that Austen wrote some gothic fiction and "was really, really funny." Grahame-Smith said he thought she would probably approve. "Or kill me."

As the "PPZ" stars exited, "Patient Zero" came up next, which focuses on the human survivor searching for a cure amidst a "rabid-like species" called the Infected. Director Stefan Ruzowitzky, sreenwriter Mike Le, Clive Standen, John Bradley, Natalie Dormer, and Matt Smith took the stage. Roughcut footage introduced the world of the film, in which the search for a vaccine requires locating "patient zero." Hope lies in a man who's been bitten but not turned. And Stanley Tucci's character is also unique among the infected, and believes "humans are the disease" and that his kind have been sent by the planet as a vaccination. Interestingly, John Bradley's character doesn't make it out of the preview!

Before turning, Bradley's character has his right arm amputated in an effort to save his life. He remarks, "It's a good thing I jerk off with my left hand!" Asked whether he practiced convulsing for the "turning" scene, the actor joked, "I practiced jerking off with my left hand."

Dormer said Smith's character Morgan is in love with his missing wife, who may or may not still be alive, while Dormer's character Gina is in love with him. "But she's a biologist tasked with saving the world," so she also has more pressing priority.

Standen said that, for perspective on his character, "there are two ways of looking for a needle in a haystack: you can either pick through the hay, shake it out, until, oh, you find the needle. Or you can burn all the hay."

"Every nation in the world, they create the monsters that vent the fears of their time," Dormer said. "The Infected are victims are the modern age ... the rabies harnesses your adrenaline, the fast pace of our 21st-century lives has been used to enrage them."

Asked which of several monsters from their movies and :"Game of Thrones" they'd rather be, the actors had some fun answers.

"I'd want to be an Infected so I could hang out with Stanley Tucci," Dormer said.

"Being a White Walker can't be that great a life," Smith sighed.

"I don't think I'm that far from an Infected anyway. I hate most music and most people," Bradley said. "It would be like a vacation for ol' JB."

Smith's character tortures the infected with music and "I'm a big music fan," which was one of the things that attracted him to the role. "Morgan owned a record store, and I buy quite a lot of vinyl myself."

Updating....