Today's roundup of casting news concerns two film adaptations that involve the undead, or, rather, the semi-deceased: the zombie tale Warm Bodies and the supernatural comic book movie, R.I.P.D..

Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, next month's 50/50) is helming Warm Bodies, which could be described as Romeo and Juliet... set during the zombpocalypse. R.I.P.D., by comparison, could be likened to Lethal Weapon - if it took place in the underworld from Beetlejuice, that is.

Warm Bodies doesn't look to be a film in the vein of Twilight, but it should still appeal to the same demographic that flock to that supernatural romance series. R.I.P.D. should draw in a slightly older audience in the mood for an imaginative variation on your average buddy-cop flick.

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Warm Bodies

rob corddry hot tub time machine
Rob Corddry in 'Hot Tub Time Machine'

Variety says that Rob Corddry is in final negotiations to join the Warm Bodies cast. Coddry is best known for his turns in raunchy comedies like Hot Tub Time Machine, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and Cedar Rapids - not to mention, he's the creator of the parody series, Childrens Hospital.

Corddry will be among the living dead in Warm Bodies, which is based on Isaac Marion's popular novel about a zombie (Nicholas Hoult) who falls in love with the girlfriend (Teresa Palmer) of one of his victims. The film version isn't expected to stray far from that original setup.

Warm Bodies is generally described (by its fans, at least) as being a genuinely-moving tragic romance that bears a passing resemblance to The Time Traveler's Wife or David Fincher's take on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - with regards to how the physical condition of its male protagonist serves as the central obstacle that keeps him apart from his lady love.

That alone make its sound more enticing than just describing it as, say, Romeo and Juliet and Zombies.

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R.I.P.D.

marisa miller model entourage
Marisa Miller on 'Entourage'

Heat Vision has rightly noted that it's been a good year for former sports and/or underwear models who've made the jump to big-screen acting, what with Brooklyn Decker starring in Just Go With It and the upcoming Battleship - plus, of course, Rosie Huntington-Whitely playing the eye candy human female lead in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Onetime Victoria's Secret and Sports Illustrated model Marisa Miller will make her feature-length debut (she previously appeared in an episode of Entourage) in R.I.P.D., an action-comedy about a recently-deceased cop (Ryan Reynolds) who joins a supernatural police force, in order to solve his murder.

Here's the weird twist: The ghostly cops in R.I.P.D. take on a different form when they're on Earth, and Miller is playing "the human avatar" that Reynold's partner (Jeff Bridges) uses. So yeah - Miller is essentially going to have to channel The Dude.

Between that odd plot detail, the solid cast (which also includes Kevin Bacon and Mary-Louise Parker), and Red director Robert Schwentke's involvement with the project, there's good reason to keep an eye out for R.I.P.D. when it finally arrives in theaters.

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Warm Bodies will likely lumber into theaters by the first half of 2013.

R.I.P.D. is scheduled for theatrical release in the U.S. on June 28th, 2013.

Source: Variety, THR