Throughout the years we have seen many different takes on the zombie genre. From the infamous ‘Night of The Living Dead’ by George Romero to “The Walking Dead” by Robert Kirkman, this genre has not only blown up in its popularity, but it has also opened the flood gates on creativity. We are now looking at the most out-of-this-world take on this horrifying genre.

The zombance-zombie romance- of the year is finally upon us! Based on Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies novel, ’Warm Bodies’ is about R, a zombie, wandering around an airport who is unlike any other zombie as presented in other films. R thinks like he is still alive and thrives on becoming human again. He falls in love with Julie, a strong-willed woman whom he meets when she and her team of survivors are sent to get more medical supplies for their town. R and his zombie friends are the horde of undead who burst through the doors of the medical facility. While R is devouring Julie’s boyfriend, Perry, he is taken on a ride of Perry’s emotions and memories. Whenever zombies eat a human brain, they are able to see that person’s memories, and feel their emotions. It is the closest things these zombies have to dreaming. It is the closest thing R has to being human again.

This movie and novel mirrors the classic tale of love, “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare. Julie is Juliet, R is Romeo, Nora is the nurse, Perry is Paris, the rejected suitor. The movie does not really follow the novel whatsoever. However, it has certain attributes from the novel.

‘Warm Bodies’ brought in $20 million on opening night and continues to make money. No other zombie movie is like it. We usually see zombies tearing into humans or animals, but ‘Warm Bodies’ shows a softer side to the zombie genre. It proves zombies have feelings, too. They are not just mindless, killing machines bent on destroying all of mankind. The witty and talented Nicholas Hoult plays the romantic heartthrob R and brings new meaning to protecting love.

To be honest, the film was almost perfect. There were a few scenes that were a bit confusing. When R eats Perry’s brain, he gets taken on a ride through his memories. R is supposed to be Perry in those memories. So naturally R should be in first person throughout those memories. There were many moments when R was in third person, watching Perry go through these memories as if he was an audience watching a film. Summit Entertainment did an amazing job casting this film. Nicholas Hoult and Theresa Palmer seamlessly bring these two characters together to tell their story. Rob Corddry brings comedy relief as R’s best friend, M.

For those fans wanting a true translation of Marion’s book onto the silver screen, they will be disappointed; this movie is without a doubt a reinterpretation of the source material, with the best parts sewn together to create a more palatable story for general audiences.

This does not mean it takes anything away from either the book or the movie itself, but the audience gets a story that is highly satisfying for being a romance-comedy about zombies. On the other hand, the movie itself is greatly performed and put together. There was comedic relief when you found yourself wanting to cry. ‘Warm Bodies’ has zombies, romance, adventure, and comedy all in one!

“Why can’t I connect with people?” R states as he wanders around his new home, the airport. At one point you find yourself relating to how R feels. This was a great adaptation of Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies novel. Besides the fact that a few scenes were out of place, the movie itself was great. Your attention is held throughout.

Rated 4.5/5 – An unbelievable love story with an amazing cast

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Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate company, has announced that the home entertainment release of the current installment in the studio’s blockbuster Twilight Saga film franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 sold an estimated 3.2 million DVD and Blu-ray units during its first weekend of release.

DVD sales for the film, which became available at retail this past Saturday night at 12:01 a.m., are approximately 18% ahead of the opening weekend of the third film in the franchise, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, demonstrating continued demand and vibrancy of the Twilight Saga. The film also performed well via digital platforms notching approximately 50,000 Electronic Sell Through transactions, a 47% increase over its predecessor; and approximately 80,000 Video on Demand transactions, a 142% increase over Eclipse.

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger stated, “The incredible fan support for the characters and story that author Stephenie Meyer has created never ceases to impress.  We thank all of the fans for continuing their journey with us beyond the big screen and look forward to bringing you Breaking Dawn Part 2 later this year.”

The home entertainment release plans surrounding The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 continue the franchise’s pattern of building community among fans by once again holding midnight opening weekend launch events at retailers including Target and Walmart.

The two nationwide retail chains each offered exclusive versions of the DVD’s contents and packaging. In comparison The Twilight Saga: Eclipse sold 2.7 million units on DVD and Blu-ray in its first weekend. The price point per unit for this release was higher than in past installments leading to increased revenue dollars related to the franchise.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 has grossed over $700 million worldwide at the box office to date since its theatrical release on November 18, 2011.  The next chapter in The Twilight Saga, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 will come to theatres on November 16, 2012.

Academy Award winner Bill Condon directed both the first and second part of the two-part finale starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. The project, based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, was written by Melissa Rosenberg with Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt and Stephenie Meyer producing.

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Following Lionsgate’s acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the Company has named Summit’s Erik Feig, President, Production of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

Reporting to Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, Feig will oversee all aspects of development and production of films from both the Lionsgate and Summit labels.  Feig will work closely with Jason Constantine, President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions for Lionsgate, on co-productions and acquisitions that are intended for theatrical release.

In a joint statement, Friedman and Wachsberger said, “Erik has been instrumental to Summit’s success over the past decade and we look forward to continuing our relationship with him in this new chapter.  With his incredible eye for films with global appeal and his ever growing list of accomplishments, we are fortunate to have such a talented individual working on our team.”

“I am very excited to join Lionsgate, one of the most vibrant, entrepreneurial media companies in the business, at this dynamic time of growth,” said Feig.  “Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns and the Lionsgate team have found enormous success in taking smart creative and business bets that support unique filmmaker voices and make financial sense as well.

With our combined slates, powerful franchises and innovative cultures, we are poised for even more success across a broad spectrum of audiences and genres.  I am also extremely happy to be continuing my tenure with Patrick Wachsberger and Rob Friedman, both of whom have been so influential to me as mentors and role models.”

Feig most recently served as President of Worldwide Production and Acquisitions at Summit where he oversaw all of Summit’s in-house productions, co-productions and acquisitions, as well as the company’s involvement with films of its client companies. The films and franchises developed and produced under his tenure include RED, KNOWING, SOURCE CODE, LETTERS TO JULIET, and each of the films in THE TWILIGHT SAGA franchise.

Critically hailed films developed, produced, or acquired by Feig include the multiple Academy Award winner THE HURT LOCKER, including Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow and Best Picture for Summit Entertainment, the recent Jonathan Levine film 50/50, and A BETTER LIFE starring Demian Bichir who is nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Actor for his performance in the film.

Feig began his career by packaging and producing the hit I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER films. He then went on to produce the teen comedy SLACKERS for Sony. During the late 1990s, he continued to develop projects for many of the major studios and networks, while operating under an overall producing deal with Artisan Entertainment, a then client of Summit.

Feig ran Summit’s production banner since 2007 and also became a partner in the company as it grew into a worldwide studio, earning executive producer and producer credits along the way on films as varied as MR. & MRS. SMITH; Paul Haggis’s IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH; and the films in the STEP UP series.

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‘Man on a Ledge’ begins with an unidentified man in a business suit, coming out of New York City’s subway and getting a room at an upscale hotel in midtown and ordering an ostentatious meal, complete with champagne and lobster. He then writes a note and steps out onto the ledge of his hotel room. To the audience this appears to be a desperate man, perhaps answering a desolate economy with the only solution he knows: ending it.

“There’s something gripping about the idea of a man on a ledge,” says the movie’s producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “Is he going to jump? Is he not gonna jump? And you know we talked to a lot of veteran cops and people who have been in this situation. And they say in general the people down below about are 50/50 for them to jump or not jump, which is kind of sick and yet I guess it is human nature.

I think it’s what attracted us to the script is that impending catastrophe and in this case we wanted to have this very strong interactivity between the ledge and what’s going on there.”

Executive Producer David Ready adds, “it really had a romantic quality to it. A redemption story of a guy who’s putting it all on the line in one day to get his life back. And so it just sort of hit all the buttons, for me and for the group.” Cut to a prison scene where we again meet our “jumper,” Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) once a New York City police officer now a convict, sentenced to 25 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

Cassidy admits to being suicidal to the prison’s shrink and unable to handle his time for the crime for which he was found guilty of. While doing a moonlighting gig, escorting the rare and expensive Monarch Diamond, it is stolen and businessman David Englander (Ed Harris) frames Cassidy for its disappearance, putting him behind bars for 25 years and allowing Englander to collect the insurance on the diamond.

Englander’s motto, di Bonaventura says, is “if somebody takes something from you, you take more back, ‘because that’s America.’” Cassidy is furloughed to attend his father’s funeral where an elaborate escape plan and heart pounding chase scene ensue, bringing us back to the ledge. “Cassidy,” di Bonaventura explains, “has an agenda, which is to prove that he was framed, and as an audience member, you still believe that maybe he is suicidal.”

Explains Ready, “it’s a prison escape that turns into a heist movie that sort of results in a love story.” Worthington agrees, “it’s got something that is different to other action movies…I get to stay still and act for a bit, not just go around yelling.”

The love story comes into play through the relationship between Cassidy and NYPD negotiator, Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) whom Cassidy asks for by name. Mercer is a controversial figure within the police force, having recently lost a jumper who was one of their own. “Cassidy chooses Mercer,” explains di Bonaventura, “because he feels that she’ll understand what has happened to him. He was ostracized for something he didn’t do, as she was for something she had no control over.”

Man On A Ledge was a spec script written by Pablo F. Fenjves that Lorenzo di Bonaventura hoped to option while he was the president of Warner Bros. He later acquired it under the di Bonaventura Pictures umbrella. As Mark Vahradian further explains, “the script got stuck along the way at MGM Studios, where they asked to take it out.

It then went to Paramount and was set up at Paramount Vantage. Three months later Paramount Vantage went out of business and so the script was dead again.” di Bonaventura and Vahradian didn’t give up on it, though. They had just finished Red with Summit Entertainment, so they sent the studio the script. “They fell in love with it,” says Vahradian. Suddenly there was interest from Sam Worthington, and Summit bought it that same week. “From there it went very, very fast,” explains Vahradian.

Director Asger Leth, whose background is in documentaries, was brought on to steer Man on a Ledge as his first feature film. It’s a decision the producers were especially excited about because the qualities he’d used to tell real-life stories were what they were after. Explains Vahradian, “what Asger brought was that awareness of details that you have to have as a documentary filmmaker. You have to be able to pick out what’s interesting in this grand gigantic frame of reality and move there.”

di Bonaventura describes Leth as gutsy, an attribute one would probably want from a director who was going to film a 14-inch ledge, 225 feet above midtown Manhattan. Leth’s fearlessness was made initially apparent at his first meeting with di Bonaventura. As Leth recalls, “I went to meet with him about another script, but on the way there I was thinking, ‘he’s also got that other script that I really like, that I’ve been talking to my agent about for a while.’

So I went there and said, ‘Lorenzo I know we’re having a meeting about this script, but that other script, Man On A Ledge, I read that. I really like that.’” di Bonaventura was impressed by Leth’s willingness to tackle a big entertainment movie as his first film. “He’s not risk averse,” says the producer. “And that’s a great thing, to find somebody like that.

So much is unfamiliar that you want somebody who’s gutsy. Also, stylistically, doing documentaries is really interesting, so we were hoping to bring that style and gutsiness to our movie.” Within a week of that first powwow, Leth and di Bonaventura were meeting with Summit and Sam Worthington. “Worthington had a really short calendar,” Leth explains, and it was decided if they were going to do this, they had to get started immediately.

Image Courtesy of  https://www.facebook.com/ManOnALedge

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