Lionsgate has signed a first-look film and TV deal with director Jonatan Levine (Long Shot), and there’s a Warm Bodies TV series on the way as a result.
2013 zombie romantic comedy Warm Bodies (which was based on the book of the same name by Isaac Marion) was directed and written by Levine, and managed to earn more than $115 million at the worldwide box office.
Set about eight years after the zombie apocalypse, the film tells the story of R, a zombie hopeless romantic, as he gets to know a young human woman named Julie and begins to fall in love with her. It stars Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton, Cory Hardrict and John Malkovich.
The new TV series is being produced by both Lionsgate and Levine’s new production company Megamix, and is just one of several projects currently in the works from the partnership.
President of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Nathan Kahane said: “For over a decade, Lionsgate has been in business with Jonathan supporting his earliest work as a gifted writer and director and storyteller and releasing his films.
“He is enormously talented and his movies are unique and refreshing and never derivative. Lionsgate has always been somewhat of an unofficial home for him and Megamix also represents a homecoming for Gillian Bohrer, a highly accomplished and respected production and creative executive. So for us, this deal is an irresistible one-two punch.”
Levine added: “Lionsgate is the perfect home for Megamix, a studio to both my most successful and favourite moviemaking experiences. Joe [Drake, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman] and Nathan have been great collaborators and friends who have supported me over the years and are as committed as Gillian and I are to nurture unique, creative and commercial visions and we couldn’t be more thrilled.”
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