Warm Bodies is far from just another entry in the cinematic history book on zombies. There’s something special with this story that separates it from its brain-chowing predecessors.
For starters, like Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland, Warm Bodies is fraught with comedic zingers and refuses to take itself seriously. After all, how could a flick about a zombie-human romance be anything but self-aware?
Still, there’s something real between the relatively speechless R (Nicholas Hoult) and his human lady friend Julie (Teresa Palmer), not the least of which is hope for the undead. Not to mention, the story calls into question humanity's appreciation for life without beating viewers over the head with philosophy.
Based on the YA novel by Isaac Marion – a sequel for which is underway – the story follows R as he decides to rescue the girl whose boyfriend’s brain became his lunch. He, who’s made a home alongside others of his kind in a run-down airport, brings her to his little knick knack-filled abode for safekeeping and over time discovers he’s beginning to regain certain memories and human traits …and that her passed beau Perry (Dave Franco)’s mind lingers with. For her safety, R and Julie plan to return her to the human colony, where one ally, her friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton), awaits but which is overseen by her father “General Grigio” (John Malkovich). Needless to say, big trouble really begins for the pair soon enough.
Release Details
The film will hit theaters on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. It has been rated PG-13 for zombie violence and some language by the Motion Picture Association of America, and its run-time is an estimated 97 minutes.
Filmmaking
Jonathan Levine of recent 50/50 acclaim both wrote and directed this adaptation. “It’s not something I ever really imagined myself doing,” he explained to Collider, “but it was very specific to these characters and specific to this world that there was an opportunity to create something unique that I don’t think you get to do much in movies these days with everything people are doing on this scale.”
The movie was shot in Montreal, Quebec starting in September, 2011.
Materials
The film’s still images are attached in the slideshow, but the marketing for Warm Bodies has also included hilarious posters filled with jokes - like zombies are “the new 99%” – and undead pick-up lines and zombie etiquette tutorials. The full load can be sifted through at the official Warm Bodies Facebook Page, Prepare for a few smart chuckles in getting through them.
Meanwhile, in the way of video releases, the first four minutes of the film (attached) have been released, during which R saunters around slowly and contemplates his existence as an undead creature. In this opening monologue, R often considers what life was like when humans were still unscathed. Contrasting that with the eventuality of the zombie species – becoming one of the hopeless, mindless boneys – proves to be frightening for him. He does have some camaraderie in his silence, though. We meet his “best friend” slash occasional grunting partner M (Rob Corddry) as well.
Other released clips from the film include:
- · Zombies attack the humans at a science lab
- · R teaches Julie to play dead around other zombies
- · R finds Julie some supplies in the airplane
- · Julie explains to Nora that she misses R
- · Nora gives R a load of questions he can’t really answer
- · Julie confronts General Grigio over the zombies possibly being cured
- · M saves R and Julie from boneys with a zamboni
Fun Fact
The characters in the story are rumored to be loosely based off of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. So the theory goes, R represents Romeo, Julie is a form of Juliet, Perry is Paris, M represents Mercutio and Nora is Juliet’s nurse.
Key Book Deviation
While the flick is said to be “pretty faithful” to Isaac Marion’s text, there is one key difference between the print and picture. Director Jonathan Levine explained to Collider, “In the book it’s all told from his perspective. And he had to kind of split the point of view a little bit in the 3rd act, in order to tell the whole story we couldn’t be in that one person’s specific point of view. And as the tension ramped up we wanted to be in the adventure movie mode and less of the existential movie mode.”
Voila! Now you're totally in the know for Warm Bodies and prepped for a trip to next weekend's box office.
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