Fresh off his turn as a young Hank McCoy/Beast in X-Men: First Class, Nicholas Hoult has a promising summer ahead of him, between his starring in Jack the Giant Killer (one of our 20 most anticipated 2012 titles) – and Warm Bodies, an adaptation of Isaac Marion’s popular supernatural horror/romance novel that is being written and directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50).
You can get an early look at Hoult as the zombie “R” in the Warm Bodies images gallery above; continue reading on for larger versions and more information about the film (including, an official synopsis).
Here is the official lowdown on the plot setup for Warm Bodies:
Zombies love people, especially their brains. But R (Nicholas Hoult) is different. He’s alive inside, unlike the hundreds of other grunting, drooling undead—all victims of a recent plague that drove the remaining survivors into a heavily guarded city. Now the Zombies roam about an airport terminal, searching for human prey and living in fear of the vicious Boneys, the next undead incarnation.
One day, R and his best friend M lumber toward the city in search of food. There, R first sets his eyes on JULIE (Teresa Palmer), a beautiful human. Determined to save her—first from the other Zombies and then from the Boneys—R hides her in his home, a cluttered 747 aircraft. Julie is terrified, and R’s grunted assurances of “Not…eat” do little to calm her. But when R begins to act more human than Zombie, coming to her defense, refusing to eat human flesh, and even speaking in full sentences, Julie realizes that R is special.
As you probably picked up from reading all that, Warm Bodies is part Romeo and Juliet-meets-the-zombpocalypse – and, of course, the book/film both invite comparisons to the Twilight series for that reason. Heck, even Hoult’s makeup job and colorless complexion as R bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, as you may note while checking out the following pics of the actor in Warm Bodies:
All that said, Warm Bodies doesn’t violate traditional zombie mythos to the degree that Stephenie Meyer’s (in)famous young adult literature (and it cinematic counterparts) does with vampires; nor does it take place against a familiar everyday backdrop or involve regular teens like either the Twilight franchise or any of its obvious imitators (ex. I Am Number Four).
Warm Bodies also has the benefit of a cast that includes experienced veterans and up-and-comers alike, including Hoult, Teresa Palmer (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), John Malkovich (RED), Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), Dave Franco (the upcoming 21 Jump Street) and Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love.).
Lastly – seeing how Levine was by and large successful at mixing cathartic laughs with serious drama involving a subject as volatile as cancer in 50/50, he seems as well-positioned as anyone to make an unorthodox love story about a young woman and an undead monster work onscreen.
We will see how it all pans out when Warm Bodies lumbers into theaters around the U.S. on August 10th, 2012.
Source: USA Today (via Collider)
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am i the only one,who will love this movie? i am not a fan of supernatural-teenage -love stories a´la twilight,but i am a fan of good zombie movies,and this sounds interesting i.m.o.. reminds a little bit the u.k.zombie-drama -colin-journey of a zombie-,good little indie-pearl.
I’m with you there, Murdock. I think people are taking the whole Twilight comparison a BIT too seriously. Either that or I have the complete wrong impression with this movie. Personally, I’ve already got a pretty basic outline for this movie mapped out in my head. I really don’t think it’s going to be serious in the sense that the creators expect the audience to actually believe that a human will fall in love with a flippin’ dead human who has reanimated himself. This isn’t a necrophiliac flick as far as I can see.
I’m expecting a fusion between dark comedy and drama; I also fully expect R to be killed in this movie (I haven’t read any of the books, by the bye, so this is blind speculation; worry not). He is, no matter how you look at it, a zombie who needs to feed on the flesh of humans to survive lest he become a ‘Boney’ (ololol) it seems (I can see no other way to make that not completely comedic…I am interested in what exactly a Boney is though I’m betting I’m right…not to toot my own horn).
Will it have some cheesy Twilight-LIKE moments? Probably. But the writing and acting cannot (lemme say that again CANNOT) possibly be worse than Twilight; there’s just no way. I’ve seen pornographic movies (it’s true) with better writing than the abysmal series that is Twilight. It’s clear to me that this is much more than that and I do hope it to be so.
Granted, I’m managing my expectations but I can see this movie being a genuinely funny, perhaps heartwarming zombie flick ala Fido (another movie where the basis rests on a zombie who doesn’t automatically eat the living, to be shallowly frank). I’ll have to check out…what was it, Colin – Journey of a Zombie? Sounds like it might also be based in the same universe as ‘zombies who don’t eat people’. It’s always the ones that are named… Harhar. Either way, to the ones flippin’ out over a ‘Twilight zombie movie’…come now, no one is that delusional. Right…?
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yes,tiojorge,colin is a very good zombie-movie,maybe the title is just ´colin´without´the journ…´in it. fido is also very good and different zombie-movie. which movie i didn´t like,and that surprised me as a fan of this genre was ´deadheads´.
Oh, God……..
WTH!?
Did they just “Twilight” a zombie flick? Somebody is playing a joke right? They just didn’t “Tween” the last damn manly monster left did they?
I think i’m going to be sick!
Hollywood needs to make movies for adults. Not tweens and teens.
The tween comparisons are way premature on this. It has a good cast, and the backdrop sounds intriguing and dangerous, but also funny.
It’s easy to see how a movie such as this could go wrong, sure, but like I said, it sounds funny and may well be hilarious. Maybe that’s what it’s going for, with a well placed sentimental moment here and there.
For the time being, color me interested.
Levi,
How exactly is it “premature?” The evidence is right there. It’s a “Tween” themed flick. Surely you don’t think it’s for the Underworld or Walking Dead audience?
So I did a little more research on the project, and it turns out that it’s based on a book (go figure) of the same name. According to Wikipedia, it has been described by one guy as a “zombie romance”. To me, that still sounds like it could be funny, but I can see more now where the paranoia is coming in. I mean, the article also said “The zombies don’t really talk in the film, so extensive voice-over will be used to express their thoughts.”
Initially, I felt that the Twilight paranoia was premature because I was responding with the information I’d taken from the Screenrant article. It gave us a plot synopsis, but it didn’t tell us whether or not the movie was a drama, a horror film, or a serious romance. It could’ve been a comedy. Do you not see the comedic potential in this? I’m not trying to provoke you, I’m being serious here.
As for your question to me, my answer is that I don’t think this film is for the Underworld or Walking Dead crowd specifically. But it may be for people who enjoyed something like Zombieland. I’m not saying that they’ll be the same movie. But Zombieland kind of turned the zombie apocalypse on its head. Similarly, this may be an interesting mash up of the Zombie flick and the rom-com. The book doesn’t sound funny, but who’s to say that this will be a faithful adaptation of the book? The tone could be completely changed.
To me this movie seems to be more than Twilight meets Zombie Apocalypse. I’ll keep an eye on this and reserve judgment till I at least see a trailer.
Interested in what the Boneys will look like.
“Boney-O & Julie, Yet?”
’bout time zombies got some love.
Yes. They did TWILIGHT the zombie genre. There will always be those who will naysay it’s similarity, but there you have it in the pics. The cleanest zombie ever. All broody and souful. How is the “Love makes a monster find his humanity” different from those other pieces of….er…filmmaking? There’s a whole lotta sentience going on in a mindless bunch of zombies, even from the synopsis. And, listen, a couple of years ago I read an article in several of the film websites about how movie (wankers)Producers were looking into spinning zombies into the romance world.
It’s crap, and it’s the deathknell of the genre (but they always come back)but it was inevitable once the formerly marginalized zombie genre became mainstream.
I hate hate hate the idea and hope it will fail. At the end of the day, we ARE talking about a creature who recently ate someone’s entrails trying to go all kissyface. I can’t see TOO many teenybop chicks going for it.
The fact that zombies are fearful of something else… the “next undead incarnation..” proves this is just.. wrong.
George Romero is probably suffering from the worst headache he’s ever had.
I’m laughing at the comments that this isn’t anything like “Twilight” or “Tweened” Huh?! So, they give him feelings instead of making him sparkly. So, here’s the test then.. will your Dad or your 14 year old girl cousin want to see this???
“He sets eyes on the.. beautiful human, and wants to save her..” Urrk!
I will say this though, he looks more like a Vampire than Edward whathisname did/does.
This is why Resident Evil needs to go on for infinity. Thank goodness for shows like “Walking Dead” and “We’re Alive.”
there is another pic of the zombie r,it was in last weaks screenrant-rubrik moviecalender of 2012 in august. there he looks different,more bloody and creepy.
Truth be told… that’s not actually a pic of Hoult as R in the SR movie calendar. There hadn’t been any official images released from Warm Bodies when that was put together, so we had to use an entirely different zombie image.
yes,i´ve seen it know,it´s another zombie,me,stupid,zombies don´t change clothes.
/groan….that is all.
Huh, I didn’t know adding eye shadow and lipstick to someone made them a zombie…
This might be interesting.
I did love Zombie Honeymoon and Boy Eats Girl.
Although, Boy Eats Girl is similar to this movie then ZH.
There was another, a foreign film but I can’t remember the name. It’s about a couple/paramedics who get stuck in an abandoned hospital after their ambulance runs out of gas. Her husband is attacked and becomes infected. She tries everything to cure him (using her own blood – she’s immune)but he eventually succumbs to the infection. Now to me it seemed like he wasn’t completely gone. I think it was because of his wife’s blood but it was like he could sense when she was in danger and he did protect her but he was also struggling with his hunger. The ending is sad but in a way happy-ish.
This reminds me of when we saw preview pictures of the young Doctor Who. People saw the pasty complexion and went on rants that they were Twilight-ing Doctor Who, too. You people have knee jerk reactions to minimal evidence and glancing similarities. Not to mention, it sounds like half of you didn’t even finish the article. You’re as bad a political pundits.
oh my gosh this sound like an interesting movie and i loved him in about a boy!!!