Costco Connection - June 2013

A young filmmaker delivers a different kind of undead movie

Zombie love

By Steve Fisher

Asked how he would describe himself to
people not familiar with his work, Levine
says, “I just do what I’m interested in. … I like
things that are kind of irreverent. I like things
that are about young people and the existen-
tial crises of young people.”
Levine, who turns 37 this month, grew up
in New York and was inspired by the works of
New York–based filmmakers such as Martin
Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee and Woody
Allen. “So I’m trying to do some kind of small
version of what those guys
did,” he says. “And I like
things that are funny.

“Growing up in New York, you’re imbued with a

IT MAY SEEM punny to talk about “fresh blood” when discussing a zombie movie, but that’s exactly what the film Warm Bodies is infused with. Based on the novel of the same name by Isaac Marion, it’s a totally different kind of work about the walking dead, filled with humor, romance and heart (the emotional kind, and maybe the biological kind as well).

R (Nicholas Hoult) is the lead zombie, from whose viewpoint the story unfolds. (R was the first letter of the young man’s name when he was alive; he can’t remember the rest.) He is destined to fall in love with a still-living girl, Julie (Teresa Palmer), but her father, General Grigio (John Malkovich), is leading the fight against the undead. If by now you’ve put together that R and Julie evoke Romeo and Juliet, you’ve got the basic premise of the film, with zombies added.

JAN THIJS

Director Jonathan Levine on the set of Warm Bodies. (Top) Nicholas Hoult as the zombie in love.

The fresh blood is delivered by a young writer-director named Jonathan Levine, who first earned attention with The Wackness and then, more recently, 50/50. The Connection spoke with him by phone.

Once he set out to write the screenplay, Levine included the novelist in the process, not to write, but to review his work.

“His support was really important to me,” says Levine. “The things you can do in a movie are very different from the things you can do great in the book. … I did need him to tell me, ‘No, this is way different from my intention.’ I wanted him to like what I was doing and I wanted him to feel like it was true to the spirit of his book, which I loved. That’s why I kept getting his feedback.”

“This had so many different elements
that felt familiar, but they all combined
to create something unique.”
—Jonathan Levine
f

Writer-director Levine felt that author Marion was ultimately pleased with the finished product. “I think it was a fairly faithful adaptation of the book,” Levine says.

A Wikipedia entry calls Warm Bodies a
“paranormal romantic zombie comedy,” to
which Levine responds, “That sounds pretty
good. That’s what I liked about it in the first
place. It was such a clever melding of genres.
It’s so rare that you get to see something that
feels unique and different. This had so many
different elements that felt familiar, but they
all combined to create something unique.”
That assessment also seems to apply to
Jonathan Levine. Remember his name. C

The Costco Connection Warm Bodies is available in Blu-ray at all warehouses.

certain sense of grandeur and romance, just because of how those streets are,” he explains. “And you end up growing up a little faster because you’re riding the subway by yourself when you’re 13. You’re exposed to a lot of different kinds of people. It’s a great way to learn about people. As a storyteller, it allows you to get into different perspectives.” Levine worked with Summit Entertainment on The Wackness and 50/50, and they sent him the novel of Warm Bodies. “I started reading the book, and I was so taken with the irreverence of the voice and the cleverness of the premise,” he recalls. “I immediately got that character. This is a character I’ve explored in other arenas, but to do it within the context of a genre piece, it allows you to open it up, lets you comment on things in a different way. So I begged them to let me do it.”