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.

Park me in front of 'The Sitter,' please!

By Sarah Sluis

I have rather nostalgic memories of my babysitters, those too-cool teenagers who played with my brother and myself while we ate kid-friendly food like mac 'n cheese and watched a movie. I adored Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and some of my friends swore similar allegiance to Adventures in Babysitting. And when it came to books, The Babysitter's Club series took up shelves and shelves in the school library--the "Gossip Girl" of my generation. So it's only natural that I would be excited to see the revival of the babysitter movie.

Jonah Hill will star in The Sitter, with David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) directing. The spec script was good enough to spark a bidding war between 20th Century Fox and Paramount (Fox won). Described as Adventures in Babysitting meets Superbad (which Hill starred in), the story follows a suspended college student living at home who gets roped into babysitting three crazy children next door. It's a nice angle: having the rule-breaker be the enforcer for once. The story also brings to mind Hill's upcoming summer movie Get Him to the Greek, which also involves babysitting--except his charge is a rock star. From the trailer, the movie appears to have the right mix of Hill going along for the ride and freaking out about what is going on, so reprising this persona should be a pretty sure thing. Every generation deserves a good babysitting movie, so I will be pleased to see Hill and Green take on the timeworn genre.

Segel joins Hill and Schwartzman in 'The Adventurer's Handbook'

By Sarah Sluis

Today's most exciting mash-up of comedy talent is The Adventurer's Handbook. Jason Segel will be joining Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman in the comedy, which "SNL" writer/director Akiva Schaffer will direct. The movie centers on four childhood friends who are disenchanted with their lives, and decide to embark on an adventure together. Their inspiration comes from tongue-in-cheek guide book The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessons from History's Great Explorers. Written by a BBC documentary filmmaker, the book combines practical information, like how to find water in a desert, with more eclectic advice, like the fact that many explorers assembling a team choose an annoying, disagreeable person to be on their expedition, so the other members of the team can bond over their mutual annoyance. Segel will play a musician turned alcoholic and backup piano player. Hill has already signed on to play an engineer and, I suspect, by virtue of his occupation, the leader of the expedition. Schwartzman's role will be a variation of the egomaniac he has done so well (Funny People, Marie Antoinette), this time as a three-time Grammy winner with a sense of entitlement to match. Since the movie centers on four friends, one role remains uncast.

This summer, adventure comedies set in other worlds have done poorly at the box office. Land of the Lost and Year One, despite their A-list casting, failed to ignite at the box office. However, it appears The Adventurer's Handbook will be set in the present day, so perhaps it will end up mimicking The Hangover, which took its mission (rescue the missing groom) to a jackpot $256 million (and counting) box office. Hill wrote the script along with Max Winkler and Matt Spicer, who both have a smattering of credits between them, including work on "Clark and Michael," a web series that starred Michael Cera. Combined with "SNL" veteran Schaffer, who has worked on the "SNL Digital Shorts" segments that have distinguished the show recently, this project could be a comedy collaboration to watch.