We’ve been following the production of Summit Entertainment’s big-screen adaptation of Isaac Marion’s zombie love story, Warm Bodies, and I have to say that the premise of this story still holds stronger than the Twilight-esque look of the first promo image released in November.
Now, take a look at this still thanks to Collider of star Nicholas Hoult (Jack the Giant Killer, X-Men: First Class). Yes, Hoult as “R”, the zombie in love with the human girl Julie, played by Teresa Palmer, still looks very beautiful and emo, but you can see so much more in this still than from the promo image from November. (Go ahead, zoom in for more detail.) Clearly, he looks dead, but “R” is animated by something different than other zombies.
[Click Image To Blow Sh!t Up]
Via Twitter, Isaac Marion called this pic of “R” a “Stage 2 Zombie” which looks still pretty clean but not to worry, zombie fans, there is gruesome gore to come. Marion also addressed concerns from fans that “R” doesn’t look as he is described in the book, saying:
“If you’re mad they took away his tie, it was for economy. [‘R’] looking like a businessman would require explanations and muddle his character.”
Synopsis 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.
After a few close calls with the Boneys, and with her father mounting an armed search for her, Julie realizes she can’t hide forever. So she sneaks back home, leaving R broken-hearted. Desperate to see her, R decides to comb his hair, stand a little straighter, and impersonate a human long enough to get past the city guards. If only he can prove to the humans that Zombies can change, maybe R and Julie’s love might stand a chance. But with the rampaging Boneys heading toward the city and Julie’s father intent on killing R and his Zombie friends, the stage is set for an all-out battle between the living and the undead.
A genre-bending tale of love and transformation, WARM BODIES is a story about a boy who loves a girl…for more than just her body.
Warm Bodies stars Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, About A Boy), Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four, Sorcerer’s Apprentice), John Malkovich (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Red) ,Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine, Childrens Hospital), Dave Franco (Fright Night, Superbad), Analeigh Tipton (Hung, Green Hornet), and Cory Hardrict (Battle Los Angeles, Tia and Tamara). The film is directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Wackness).
Warm Bodies is slated to hit theaters on August 10, 2012.
