Got to hand it to Summit Entertainment – always thinking ahead. They probably feel that many have grown tired of the Twilight franchise. People aren’t buying the “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” T-shirts like they used to. So they’ve decided to snuggle up to some “Warm Bodies” for a change.
Based on a self-published novel by Isaac Marion (before the publishing rights were picked up Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster), the book is described as having a tone like Twilight-meets-Shaun of the Dead. In the story, an existentially tormented zombie named “R” begins an unlikely friendship with the human girlfriend of one of his victims. The blossoming relationship starts a chain reaction that will transform him, his fellow zombies and maybe the whole lifeless world.
Jonathan Levine, who directed the ’80s throwback The Wackness with Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby (Juno) and a pot-smoking Ben Kingsley, is slated to direct.
I always like a good zombie movie (just look at last year’s Zombieland), but zombie literature is as popular as ever these days. With World War Z, Dead America, and of course Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which will see a release next year). I’ll even add Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel, which reads like a cross between Dawn of the Dead and the TV show 24.
Although the limited print run of Warm Bodies has long been sold out, be on the look out for a fresh printing by Atria Books this summer. In the meantime, you can watch a publicity trailer for the book Marion made back in 2008:
Or you can read Issac Marion’s inspiration for Warm Bodies, a short story entitled “I Am a Zombie Filled with Love.” Here’s an excerpt:
I am a zombie, and it’s not so bad. I’m learning to live with it. I’m sorry I can’t properly introduce myself, but I don’t have a name anymore. Hardly any of us do. We forget them, like anniversaries and PIN numbers. I think mine might have started with a “T”, but I’m not sure. It’s funny, because back when I was alive, I was always forgetting other people’s names. I am finding that irony abounds in the zombie life, an ever-present punch line. But it’s hard to smile when your lips have rotted off.
Source: The Playlist
