The first trailer for the zombie love story Warm Bodies has been released.  Directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50), the film stars Nicholas Hoult as “R” a zombie who falls in love with Julie (Teresa Palmer) and starts to act more human than zombie.  This trailer is incredibly charming, promising some really fun performances from the whole cast.  I'm also encouraged by how fresh this looks, which is saying something given the saturation of the undead across every media platform nowadays.  Levine's 50/50 was a fantastic mix of humor and heart, and it looks like he might have successfully struck a similar tone with a cast full of zombies.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Rob CorddryJohn Malkovich, Dave Franco, and Analeigh TiptonWarm Bodies opens on February 1st, 2013.

warm-bodies-poster

Official synopsis:

Zombies love people, especially their brains. But R (Nicholas Hoult) is different. He’s alive inside, unlike the hundreds of other grunting, drooling undead—all victims of a recent plague that drove the remaining survivors into a heavily guarded city. Now the Zombies roam about an airport terminal, searching for human prey and living in fear of the vicious Boneys, the next undead incarnation.

One day, R and his best friend M lumber toward the city in search of food. There, R first sets his eyes on JULIE (Teresa Palmer), a beautiful human. Determined to save her—first from the other Zombies and then from the Boneys—R hides her in his home, a cluttered 747 aircraft. Julie is terrified, and R’s grunted assurances of “Not…eat” do little to calm her. But when R begins to act more human than Zombie, coming to her defense, refusing to eat human flesh, and even speaking in full sentences, Julie realizes that R is special.

After a few close calls with the Boneys, and with her father mounting an armed search for her, Julie realizes she can’t hide forever. So she sneaks back home, leaving R broken-hearted. Desperate to see her, R decides to comb his hair, stand a little straighter, and impersonate a human long enough to get past the city guards. If only he can prove to the humans that Zombies can change, maybe R and Julie’s love might stand a chance. But with the rampaging Boneys heading toward the city and Julie’s father intent on killing R and his Zombie friends, the stage is set for an all-out battle between the living and the undead.

A genre-bending tale of love and transformation, WARM BODIES is a story about a boy who loves a girl…for more than just her body.