What happens when a zombie falls in love with a human? How on earth could the human love him back? The question is answered in Warm Bodies, the book-to-film adaptation of the beloved Isaac Marion novel of the same name.
Hypable conducted interviews at the Warm Bodies press junket earlier this month. We spoke with lead stars Nicholas Hoult (R), Teresa Palmer (Julie), and author Isaac Marion amongst others.
Hoult, who plays the poor zombie who falls in love with Julie and is determined to find a way for her to accept him, says he had only read the book after getting the lead role. “I read the script, really enjoyed it, then read the book to see if I could find any bits of wisdom,” he told us. It didn’t take him long to find more material to work with to portray R. “There were a lot of interesting thoughts and feelings, and there’s loads of great stuff that isn’t in the film. Unfortunately you can’t fit it all in. There’s a book laying around at home with a lot of underlining and circling. It helps to have different sources to draw from.”
Marion, understandably, was nervous about his book being turned into a film and leaving his work in the hands of a Hollywood studio. His nerves were diminished once he hit the Canadian set. “I was there for about two weeks. I went to Montreal and watched it happen. That was a really, really great experience. One of the highlights of my life was sitting back and watching these people take it so seriously and really put time and talent into [the film].”
The nerves stuck around until he got to watch the final product. “It’s surprisingly faithful,” he said when asked how loyal of a book-to-film adaptation it is. “As a movie on its own, it’s really solid and a really interesting, quirky movie. If I didn’t know anything about the book I think I would like the movie. It’s always a weird experience. The first time I saw it I was terrified, saying to myself ‘Please be good, please be good.’ Every time they would pass a scene without ruining it for me I would think, ‘Okay, good.’ [Laughter].”
“There’s a lot that could’ve gone wrong, and it came together really well,” he assured us.
Palmer, who plays R’s love interest (the happy couple are pictured above), is already looking ahead to what’s next from Marion. The author had announced that a sequel to Warm Bodies is in the works. “I was so excited – I think I was one of the first people to tweet, ‘I’m so excited!’ when the news came out,” she said with passion to us. “I hope he can get it done quickly so that maybe, if the film goes on to find a wide audience, we can do a second one.”
What does she hope to see in a sequel? “I can assume there’s some other outbreak of something. I would like to see their relationship develop further between the two of them. I really wanna see where Nora goes, and M of course – whether he finds love of his own.”
“Maybe a zombie marriage – and a zombie baby!” she suggested.
Warm Bodies opens in theaters tomorrow, February 1. Check out our review of Warm Bodies.
A fun side note to our day talking with the cast – director Jonathan Levine, who also helmed 50/50, bought our small group of press Bloody Mary’s. Here we are enjoying them:
