Today in zombie movies: 'Warm Bodies,' 'Kitchen Sink'

By Sarah Sluis

Since the success of Twilight, supernatural romances have been all the rage. Into this mix comes Warm Bodies, which replaces Edward Cullen the Vampire with R the Zombie. Nicholas Hoult, who I adored as the kid in About a Boy and who put in a memorable performance in A Single Man, will star. The concept, however, is not for the squeamish. After perusing Amazon reviews of the book, I came across this gem of a meet-cute. "R meets Julie when he eats the brain of her longtime boyfriend Perry, and appropriates his memories of this wonderful girl," Amazon reviewer xBE states."In the middle of the feed, R sees her in the room, and manages to keep himself and the other zombies from attacking her and then brings her back to the airport where they live." The reviewer compares the zombie to Edward Scissorhands, a notable comparison given that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp really made that concept work. On a story level, though, Scissorhands is closer to Beauty and the Beast than the I-want-to-eat-you-but-I-love-you Twilight. The Summit project has also found a director, Jonathan Levine (The Wackness), who also led the screenplay adaptation. One test for Twilight-inspired projects will come up in just a couple weeks. Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) directed Red Riding Hood, which pairs a feral, bloodthirsty werewolf with Amanda Seyfried in a red caplet.

While supernatural romances have seen a huge spike in popularity, horror comedies have been coming at a pretty regular pace the past several years. The latest may mark the directorial debut of multi-hyphenate star Jonah Hill, who also has writing and producing credits to his name. Kitchen Sink will center on teen zombies and vampires who must band together and avoid eating each other in order to fight off an alien invasion. I guess the title is the reference to that saying, "Everything but the kitchen sink..?" Sony will finance, but given Hill's busy schedule (he's also starring in The Sitter, appears in Moneyball and is writing/starring/exec producing 21 Jump Street), it may be a while before this project hits theatres.