Paramount’s World War Z has been gaining notoriety lately, ever since set pics of star Brad Pitt started hitting the Net. The adaptation of author Max Brooks’ ‘oral history of the zombie war’ has always had a question mark hovering over it, since the format of book involved a U.N. employee interviewing survivors of the zompocalypse about their experiences.
That’s a tricky narrative format to translate to film. Director Marc Forster could’ve snagged some great dramatic actors for a movie made in the style of a faux documentary; however, a lot of people figured that the World War Z film would go the route of, say, Interview With a Vampire (also starring Pitt), with U.N. worker Gerry Lane’s (Pitt) survivor interviews being the frame for flashbacks to grisly zombie war action. When fans learned the movie was leaning toward a PG-13 rating, they figured the aforementioned format would still work, only with less grisly zombie war action.
It now appears as though the World War Z movie will be a far departure from Brooks’ novel.
We cited the Paramount press release for our earlier report on World War Z‘s release date, but it was other sites like /Film and Movies.com that first picked up on the bombshell packed in the film synopsis that came with Paramount’s announcement:
“The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.”
Clearly this is a massive change to the story. Brooks’ book explored – among other things – how the world would or wouldn’t be able to cope with a massive disaster like a zombie apocalypse. The sci-fi/horror premise was a great allegorical frame for a lot of relevant political, social and moral questions. This movie is basically your tried-and-true (and often failed) race-against-time action/thriller. You probably wouldn’t even bat an eye if were to lie and say that Roland Emmerich was directing.
This “tweaking” of the story is also a massive change to the character of Pitt’s U.N. employee, who in the book is a man trying to research the global catastrophe to try and gain some perspective on it and what it has done to humanity. In this movie, he’s basically the reluctant hero who must overcome insurmountable odds to save the world (and just maybe… the woman he loves).
Look… This stuff happens all the time in Hollywood. Books, old films, foreign films, comic books, board games, toys – even websites – all have their likeness funneled through the Tinseltown machine before a lot of them get spit out the other end as flat sheets of cinematic bologna. Why pretend to be surprised that it’s happening to this book?
The only question is: Are you still interested in this project? Or is it straying too far from its roots to be worthy of your ticket money?
Fans of the book: is there a particular scene or moment you worry will be missing from the movie?
World War Z will be in theaters on December 21st, 2012.
Source: Paramount
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While I agree that Brooks’ novel was fantastic, there is no way any movie studio could have done a decent adaptation by strictly adhering to the book’s plot. No way in the world.
This is what drew me to the movie. The people running so fast & mindlessly. These must be the zombies. What is frightening to me is that they run to where?????? Is this something that was discussed in the books or Hollywood’s take on this. The scene in the plane where Brad Pitt’s character looks through the curtain to see what’s coming & then we see people in a panic climbing over seats and people to go where????? Can someone help me with this. Where are they going so fast. How does this virus start and what are the signs of infection??? Thank you.
PG-13? Yeeeeeaaaaaah. Count me out Hollywood. I’ll just hang tight until season 4 of the Walking Dead. But thanks for a bunch of nothing!
Massive production delays? Completely divergent from the source material, save some scant details? PG-13 you say? The kiss of death says I.
I stopped caring about zombie movies the moment I understood why I liked ‘The Walking Dead’ so much: TWD gives us time to actually care who dies, AND it features all the sorts of genre related stuff that we find in the movies.
I don’t care for newer zombie movies, say post 2004, but I was willing to give this one a chance based on my enjoyment of the novel. Now, after the years of b/s on this project, and my own experiences with troubled productions and the products they produce…. No. I will NOT be buying a ticket.
*A LETTER TO THE GUYS WHO DECIDED THAT A SOFTER RATING WOULD BRING IN MORE BUSINESS: PG-13 rated zombie movies? ARE YOU F***ING STUPID????????
I personally think that World War Z if it is to remain faithful to the source material should be made into a TV mini-series. It is just not possible to cram the contents and events of the book in maybe 2 hours movie time. What I would be missing though is the Battle of Yonkers and the story with the downed fighter pilot that got lost in the woods.