It’s taken a little while, but it seems like Australian actress Teresa Palmer is starting to hit a groove. The 25-year-old actress broke out in 2005 with “Wolf Creek,” and quickly found herself coming to Hollywood’s attention, turning up in Adam Sandler‘s “Bedtime Stories” and “The Grudge 2.” But then came a couple of setbacks: George Miller cast her as the villain, Talia al-Ghul, in his “Justice League” movie, but the film collapsed, and while Palmer originally had the female lead in Doug Liman‘s “Jumper” she was recast when the decision was made to age-up the characters.
Things have been looking up as of late, though — she was a luminous highlight of “Take Me Home Tonight,” albeit in a rather thankless role, and completely walked away with “I Am Number Four” as an alien bad-ass. She’s been linked in recent days to Oliver Stone‘s “Savages,” and now word’s come in that she’s close to landing another high profile role, as THR reports that she’s in negotiations to join Summit‘s zombie romance “Warm Bodies“
The project, based on an upcoming novel by Isaac Marion, is set in a world devastated by a zombie plague, and follows one of the undead, R, who strikes up a friendship with the girlfriend of one of his victims. “The Wackness” helmer Jonathan Levine, whose next project, the Seth Rogen/Joseph Gordon-Levitt cancer comedy “50/50” and has been picking up some strong buzz, has the directing gig, and rising star Nicholas Hoult, who’s about to graduate from “X-Men: First Class” to the lead in Bryan Singer‘s tentpole “Jack The Giant Killer,” will play the zombified lead.
Should Palmer sign on, she’ll play the female lead — the daughter of a human military leader, who seeks to build bridges between the living and the undead. The ‘”Twilight” meets “Shaun of the Dead“‘ logline gives us pause, and the tone is potentially a minefield, but the source material is terrific by all accounts, and we’re fans of all the talent involved so far, particularly Palmer — who deserves to move beyond the ‘girlfriend’ roles she’s been given for the most part — so we’re certainly keeping an eye on this. There’s no word on when this’ll get before cameras yet, but we imagine it’ll be after Hoult wraps “Jack The Giant Killer” some time in the second half of this year.
