A young filmmaker
delivers a different
kind of undead movie
Zombie love
© 2011 SUMMIT EN TERTAINMEN T, LLC. ALL RIGH TS RESERVED.
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.”