Since then, Issac has written four books in the Warm Bodies series( The Living, The Burning World, The New Hunger, and upcoming book The Overnoise). You can learn more about the author and his book by visiting his website(issacmarion.com). So, take this time to read his thoughts on the 10th anniversary of the film adaptation of Warm Bodies, his experience on it and his latest release titled Hope and Fears and Poems that speak to them.
1. Congratulations on the 10th-Year Anniversary of the “Warm Bodies” film adaptation, could you tell us how you found out that your book will be adapted into a film?
I had just recently finished it and the freelance editor I'd hired to give feedback told me she'd sent it around to some of her old industry contacts. I was getting ready to go through the usual hoops of querying agents, but then an early morning phone call woke me up, and the editor told me one of the producers she'd contacted loved the book and was flying to Seattle TODAY to talk to me about optioning it. The producer literally showed up that same day and took me out to dinner, starting throwing out names of actors and directions, and it just started HAPPENING. One of the most surreal moments of my life.
2. In one word, how would you sum up your experience with the film premiere of Warm Bodies and your journey writing all the sequels?
Damn, that's a LOT of ground to cover with just one word! Particularly because the experience with the film was VERY different from the experience of writing the sequels. Almost opposite, really. Honestly, both were such complex and contradictory experiences, there's no way I could distill them to one word. If you insist, it was all very pseudopseudohypoparathyroidic.
3. What is your biggest reward for writing and being involved with Warm Bodies film adaptation after all these years?
The movie more or less created my fan base and gave the book its place in pop culture. It was selling reasonably well before the movie was announced, and who knows, maybe it would have become a hit on its own, but it's almost impossible these days for a book to penetrate the public consciousness without a movie adaptation. It's been a pretty incredible feeling to watch my story become so widely recognized, even if the vast majority of people still don't know there was a book!
4. What was your favorite scene from Warm Bodies when you wrote the book? And what was your favorite part from the film adaptation?
It's tough to pick a favorite, there are so many moments that are meaningful to me, but I think maybe the one that stands out the most is R and Julie driving in the rain and finding the abandoned house. This is pretty much the middle of the story, a little quiet space between the drama at the airport and the climactic events at the stadium, and for a few moments they get to just hang out. They're driving home, sitting around in their house and chatting, they're almost like normal people. I really like the feeling of that juxtaposition, the simple sweetness on the surface with the wrongness humming underneath, momentarily suppressed.
That whole sequence was pretty faithful in the movie and maybe even further enhanced by the music and atmosphere, so my favorites line up there.
5. Silly-Game Question: From Warm Bodies novel could you please leaf through the pages and point at a random place. What is the full sentence? And what is the page number of this random sentence?
Honestly, I don't have a copy of Warm Bodies on hand! I live in a 10x13 shed in the wilderness and I barely have room to squeeze a chair in front of my computer desk. All my books are in storage. So I cannot play your silly game!
6. I’m glad you made a cameo in Warm Bodies film as a zombie. Could you talk about how that happened and your experience doing it?
I had a fairly close acquaintanceship with Jonathan Levine the director as he was writing and developing the movie and he had talked since the beginning about giving me a cameo. I was originally supposed to have a much more significant role, I was going to be the "son of a rich CEO" in R's imagination near the beginning, the kid who pulls money out of an ATM and then ends up dead on the airport baggage conveyor. Apparently there was some issue with casting me in a named role because they were shooting in Canada and they were only supposed to cast Canadians for minor roles or something like that, so they had to downgrade me to an extra.
It was a bit disappointing. I spent several hours in the makeup chair getting the full closeup zombie treatment, and then they had me just walk by in the background, so far away I'm not even in focus! Something that still haunts me is I heard Jonathan grumbling to someone that I kept looking at the camera—rookie actor mistake—and maybe that's why he blurred me out, but I was looking at R and Julie! I thought it made sense that a wandering background zombie would be curious about R bringing a Living person into the airport so I looked at them as I walked past. I wasn't looking at the camera, Jonathan!
But anyway, it was still very cool to have bragging rights that I was actually in the movie. One or two people actually recognized me somehow, which is amazing because I'm literally just a gray blob in the background!
7. Were you ever on set (besides filming your cameo)? If so, could you tell me your memorable moment?
I was on set every day for two weeks! A set visit was part of my contract and the studio payed for me to stay a week, but when the week was over I refused to leave! Teresa Palmer offered for me to stay in the basement of the duplex she was renting, so I left the studio's hotel and just kinda...lingered. It was way too much fun. The feeling of showing up on those sets, especially the abandoned airport, and watching all these amazing artists bring my story to life, it was indescribable. I mean, EVERY moment was memorable, it would be very hard to choose. Probably the most surreal was the moment I first arrived, I walked in on the scene where R and Julie kiss in the water, so they're just standing there soaking wet and shivering, kissing for a minute, then taking a break. Nick recognized me and waved. I was talking to the producer and she goes, "Oh, and here's John!" and I turn around and it's John Malkovich. I think I said something idiotic like, "So how's the scene going?" or something. That was probably the most memorably terrifying moment. Some of the more memorably wonderful moments would be spending a weekend exploring Montreal with Lio Tipton, and going to an upscale strip club with the entire cast (minus Malkovich, of course, he did not hang out with the commoners.)
8. The film had an all-star cast that included Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, and Cory Hardrict, and John Malkovich. What are your thoughts on them participating in something that originated from you?
I was struck over and over by how crazy it was that these people were recreating my story right in front of me. I remember a moment where some crew member was talking about the shot and yelling into his headset, "We need Julie over here" and it just made me giggle that everything was so professional and serious. Like, Julie? The character I made up? It was so gratifying to see those actors really dig into it and create something amazing. Having your story adapted is a totally unique experience that isn't really comparable to anything else I can think of.
9. On set, which of the cast were you able to conversate with, and how was that experience?
Pretty much everyone except Malkovich hung out together every day. We'd sit together and chat during lunch breaks and there were a few days off where they were free to go out on the town, but mostly it was wall-to-wall shooting so who I got to know depended on how big of a role they had. I saw less of Nick because he's in almost every scene so he was always busy, but we still had our moments. He's the only actor who told me he read the book beforehand, which I found very gratifying and reassuring and I think it totally shows in his performance. Teresa had a little more down time and we had some lovely chats. Lio Tipton had big chunks of free time and we really hit it off. Lio was also kind of an "outsider," didn't really feel like they fit into the Hollywood scene, so we connected over our awkwardness. Spent a lot of time together on set and off and that was wonderful.
10. So far, the sequels to Warm Bodies stories have been optioned, if (or when) it becomes a TV series or movie/s, which particular scene are you looking forward to seeing (from any of the books)?
It's funny because the later books are so much more cinematic than Warm Bodies, there are so many big set pieces and action sequences, and yet they can't seem to figure out how to get them on screen! There are a lot of big, epic moments in The Burning World and The Living that would be incredible to see, but the part that would excite me the most would be the part that they would probably cut out: the Library. All the trippy metaphysical stuff. I would be amazed if they allowed that stuff into their adaptation, which would almost certainly be simplified to match the "zom rom com" feel of the movie, but it would be amazing to see the more psychedelic "magical" aspects visualized by a director with style.
11. How many hours a day do you write in general?
When I'm actively working on a novel, I usually start first thing in the morning and go till afternoon. It really depends on the flow, though, because if I'm struggling with a scene, stuck on something, it burns through my brain fuel much quicker and sometimes I collapse after just a couple hours.
12. What was your favorite book when you were a kid? Do you have a favorite book now?
I don't really have "favorites" in general. I've never really known how to decide a hierarchy like that, there are just things I like and things I like a lot, and they also can change from year to year. Something I thought was amazing 5 years ago might not hold up at all under current scrutiny, so I don't really like to canonize things that way. A book I read RECENTLY that I really liked was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke!
I have a Patreon (it's basically how I'm staying alive right now) and I asked my patrons to send me anonymous messages about their "hopes and fears." I then used those confessions as prompts to write some poems. Some of them are meant to encourage the person or offer some helpful perspective on that problem, others are kind of just acknowledging them, seeing them. I was writing those for several years and I decided to put them in a collection and indie publish it. I'm not involved in the poetry scene at all, total outsider, and don't really have any ambitions in that arena, I just wanted to put this out there because it felt meaningful and some people have said it inspired them, or at least made them cry, which is always good to hear. Fill my mug of Readers' Tears.
14. Silly-Game Question: From Hope and Fear and Poems That Speak Them, could you please leaf through the pages and point at a random place. What is the full sentence? And what is the page number of this random sentence?
Well, they're poems, so there are no "sentences" per se, but I can pick a random stanza?
you are not a debt owed to anyone
you are a gift
Page 17.
15. Several poems have been made into films, which poem in “From Hope and Fear and Poems That Speak Them” do you think might make an intriguing film and why?
Interesting question. None of these poems have any kind of narrative really, because they're responses to real people's troubles. There is one called "Starship" that describes the human experience as being the pilot of a gigantic ship which is your body, and the incredible honor and privilege it is to be the owner of such an expensive craft, sent out to explore the universe. I think there could be a story in the idea of the conscious "you" as a separate entity from your body, which is its vehicle. I've thought about writing something on that premise.
16. Which novel/novella/short story have you read that you would like to see a film or TV Series adaptation (besides yours, of course)?
I'm still waiting for a legitimate adaptation of the Dark Tower series. The recent movie was an atrocity, but if they could ever find someone weird enough to adapt the books faithfully as an epic TV series, with all their trippy surrealism intact, not watered down to commercial palatability, it could be something incredibly unique.
17. Last question, if you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be?
I really can't think of any celebrities I find particularly interesting right now. I would pick three random people off the street and then interview them like they're famous. Ask them what they're working on right now, show a clip of their commute, totally commit to the idea that they're public figures that everyone knows. Then film the audience's confusion in extreme closeup.