WARM BODIES Author Talks about the Film Script and More

Isaac Marion hasn’t even released his full length debut Warm Bodies in the US yet, and yet it is still one of the most buzzed about books and is set to be an upcoming film.  The author previously released a short story on his website entitled I Am a Zombie Filled With Love.  This story was quickly expanded into the novel Warm Bodies, which is being released in the US April 26th.  After being released in the UK, the book was quickly snatched up for a feature length film.  The zombie love-story will be directed by All The Boys Love Mandy Lane director Jonathan Levine and is set to star Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.  Beyond the break, you can find what the writer has to say about an early draft of the script he was able to read.

The Void was able to snag an interesting interview with the writer who details his rise to fame and the popularity of zombies. More importantly, he talks about the upcoming film.

The early draft I read employed a voiceover narration in the beginning to bring us up to speed on who R is and how his world works, then the VO gradually faded away as the film progressed, portraying R’s thoughts more through his body language and limited speech. I think narrations can be obnoxious if used clumsily or unnecessarily, but this one seems well integrated, and adds a sense of mood and style that I actually missed in the second half. Last I heard, the director agreed and was planning to work more of that into the second half to prevent it from doing that thing that so many Hollywood movies do, starting out full of wit and charm and gradually collapsing into action and spectacle in the third act.

The writer also goes on to talk some of his upcoming projects, which sounds very interesting.

The one I’m probably going to write next will be a big departure from Warm Bodies. It’s about a guy who gets on a freighter ship to Antarctica in an attempt to escape his growing domesticity, and his girlfriend who is left behind to figure out the dark roots of his inner torment. It involves psychic dream conferencing, nautical adventure, and supernatural beings and/or hallucinations.

After that comes one about a strained relationship between two post office workers, one a friendly, upbeat young woman from a utopian South Pacific island, the other an introverted, misanthropic crank who would like to see most of humanity wiped out. Their lives are interrupted when an apparently omnipotent customer takes the post office hostage and begins making socially unacceptable demands while slowly reducing the population of the Earth.

Click here to read the entire interview.  Also, make sure to check out the book Warm Bodies when it is released later this month. You can find the link to the book below as well as the synopsis.

R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. His ability to connect with the outside world is limited to a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing.

After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His choice to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies explores what happens when the cold heart of a zombie is tempted by the warmth of human love.