Jonathan Levine is certainly developing a bit of a following. After earning rave reviews for the still-unreleased "All The Boys Love Many Lane," impressing with his follow up "The Wackness" and finally hitting it with mainstream audiences with "50/50" this year, the helmer is now tackling a zombie love-story with an adaptation of Isaac Maron's "Warm Bodies."
Currently in post-production, the film is due for release later this summer but we now have a new look (via Collider) at the film's star Nicholas Hoult as R, a zombie who falls in love with the girlfriend of one of his victims, who also happens to be the daughter of a zombie-hating general. It's definitely an upgrade on the almost 'Twilight'-esque first look which we featured in our Most Anticipated Escapist/Popcorn Flicks.
Starring alongside Hoult, who will be leading another summer flick in Bryan Singer's "Jack The Giant Killer," will be Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton and, perhaps most excitingly, John Malkovich, as the aforementioned general. Here's a full synopsis of the novel, courtesy of Amazon:
R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.
After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.
Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, 'Warm Bodies' is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.
Levine has previously teased the film as something "super different and very cool and an opportunity for me to push the boundaries of style and tone, after doing a movie where it’s a lot of people just talking together on a couch. It’s broadened the scale of what I’ve done but it’s also a challenging topic, it’s got a great cast, it’s a wonderful book, and it’s certainly going to be different and I think it’s an exciting adventure movie. But I hope it will be unique [and] visually arresting."
"Warm Bodies" is slated to hit theaters August 10th and will be going head-to-head with political-comedy "Dog Fight" starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis.
