World War Z

WorldwarzFresh off of Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster has been tapped for the screen adaptation of World War Z. We get word of this project thanks to our friends at comingsoon:

Paramount Pictures has set Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster to helm World War Z, based on the Max Brooks best-selling novel about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies, reports Variety. Changeling scribe J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay, and Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing.

Max Brooks has the genetics to win at life and it pleases me to see Brooks son of Brooks in the writing racquet.

I haven’t read World War Z, so I have no opinion on it. I beseech my international friends to fill me in with your thoughts. Have any of you had the chance to read this book? If so – what did you think about it and are you excited to see it made into a film?

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39 thoughts on “World War Z

    1. now its almost confirmed and each day we hear more news. it actually is an autobiographical movie and all new rumours say marc forster is planning his coming out!!!! and not only – madonnas stylist has been seen on set, soundtrack from brian reitzell.not sure what to think about all that stuff, but i think its vey likely that something is going on!

  1. seems to be true. an interview on todays swiss press features a certain tobias horka who worked with mf. and he confirms that he has seen mf in front of the camera!!!! it must be an autobiographocal movie. or at least i’ve never heard that mf showed big talents as an artist till now. :-)it is also confirmed that there will be an official release in june/july.

    1. Yes, heard rumours about this, too! But it seems to be a independent autobiographical piece, starring MF as a leading actor. Anybody who knows more about this, please share!!!

  2. The book really wasn’t that disjointed, and it didhave heros and characters, you just had to look for them. Paul Redeker, the President (who they left unamed), Emile Renard(who is mentioned several times), General Raj-Sing . . . the amount of cross-reference, allusion, and intertwining in that book is incredible. However, you really only notice the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time through

  3. I think this can be adapted into a great movie if it’s done correctly. I’m thinking something along the lines of “Interview With the Vampire” where the background of the book is two guys doing an interview but the bulk of the story is told in first person via the character being interviewed, starting with a narrative that runs throughout the story to give it continuity, but melds into a memory with character interaction and dialogue, etc.

    Additionally I think this will necessarily be a long movie — “Interview with the Vampire” was a 3 hour audiobook whittled down a 2 hour movie. “World War Z” is a 6 hour long audiobook, so even with some substantial editing (which I believe could be done fairly easily without sacrificing much) it really needs to be at least in the 3 hour timeframe IMO to retain its cohesiveness.

    Frankly I don’t think anyone is going to enjoy sitting through a 3+ hour long movie that feels like a documentary. And you better believe the theaters won’t be happy about running a 3+ hour long movie unless they are pretty sure it’s going to be packing ’em in like the longish “Lord of the Rings” movies.

  4. Seriously, the Citizen Kane of the zombie genre. It may some eyebrows when I say that this book is really “deep”, but the zombies are stand ins for issues such as SARS, the toll of war, PTSD, the selfishness of man … seriously, this book is full of themes! I do wonder how they’re going to squeeze in all the stories in the book. Each and every one of them, as one poster said, can be a movie on its own. My particular favourite involves celebrities ensconced in an anti-zombie fortress the best money can buy (oh, the thrill …) and what happens when all hell breaks loose. And then there’s the grueling tale of a soldier trapped behind ‘enemy lines’. MAN! That on is frightening. And so are the zombies that emerge from the sea. SHUDDER.

    This book is truly amazing. DO READ IT.

  5. The Zombie genre has been laid to rest in film. Where else is there to go? World War Z. This is the only Zombie movie that needs to be made. It was a great twist on Zombies. In most of the movies you wonder, how did it get so bad with all our science and technology. This book fills that in perfectly. There are tales that will haunt, excite and anger you. Each interview is told solely from that person perspective. The Soldiers speak of battle, civilians speak of survival, the profiteers speak of how they conned people, etc. It will be very interesting to see how they pull this off and who they cast. I think there will be some big name people attached to this project since Brad Pitt is already involved.

  6. This is one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. People talk about books they just “Cannot put down”. This was it for me. I felt like a zombie while reading it. Nothing else matted. I was the undead and the end of the book was my yummy, still breathing human. I think this would make a far better mini-series than a movie. I’m totally stoked that it’s even becoming a movie, but I am really afraid that a 2-3hr. movie is just not going to be enough time for everyone to really understand the greatness that is WWZ the novel. A (Minimum 10 Part, similar to Band of Brothers) Mini-Series, maybe shot in a documentary style would be amazing. They could even collaborate with Brooks to have a few new stories added for the series.

    Still TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTALY stoked for the movie though. I just hope it’s as amazing as the book is.

  7. The book is great. The audio book is even better just because you can visualize much more…. So a suggestion to the screenwriter…. read the book and listen to the audio book. Then I feel if you get all the parts in the film…the film will be great. Good luck wish I could help.

  8. As long as they show how the zombies could practically attract each other over long distances, with their moaning/groaning, (which led to the huge invasion battle) I’ll be happy with this movie.

    — Crash pulled off the “no central character” story line in 2006, even won an Oscar for best picture and has become a successful TV series with the same writers.

    — Weird how Quantum of Solace is such a shitty movie but is on it’s way to becoming the biggest opening for a Bond movie, ever. Ticket sales never lie.

  9. If being the operative word. When I look at the sheer number of things that can go horribly, horribly wrong when it comes to a WWZ movie, there’s almost too many to list. The chief one, however, do remain focusing on one story. Don’t get me wrong, the individual stories are all pretty good, and you could easily make a movie about each of them, but that would be definitely notgood, a massive waste of potential for sure.

  10. It’s a fantastic book, but there’s no “main character” – the only character who continues through the whole book is the narrator, and his views and identity are kept transparent. This would have to be made as the DEFINITION of an ensemble movie, and if they can pull it off, it will be truly brilliant.

  11. World War Z is truly an interesting book, although, I’m not sure if there’s any good way of giving it the silver screen treatment without removing very important parts of the action. The most impressive part of the book is undoubtably how it portrays the zombie apocalypse from multiple angles and with several different societies as a backdrop. I’m not certain about Marc Forster, but I haven’t seen QoS, so I can’t tell anything about his directing abilities. Then again, making zombie movies is a craft in itself, so I s’pose I should be sceptical of any first attempts.

    Then again, Night of the living dead was a first attempt, and that wasn’t all bad, it was in fact quite awesome.

    There’s hope, but in a while, I’ll either worship or hate Mr. Forster.

  12. If there’s any chance that this movie would be good it’s totally blown by Marc Forster being the director after the disaster of Quantum of Solace which was not only the worst Bond movie ever but up there as possibly the worst movie of the year-and besides the horrible script which is almost excusable in a movie of this type-the directing was abysmal-the action scenes were annoying-if I wasn’t with someone else I would have walked out of this movie and certainly won’t ever go to another Forster movie ever again.

  13. I don’t really know about Marc Foster, and I haven’t seen his movies, but I saw Quantum of Solace today (why they call it that I have no idea), and it was freaking amazing. I think he could be a right pick.

    Oh, and just wondering, John and Doug, why aren’t you guys putting reviews on this blog, or haven’t been lately?

  14. I was going to stick this on the the livechat yesterday but didn’t have a login.

    The book is very interesting in its format but i think would require a huge production to pull if off with any decency. Some of strories settings are huge in terms of scale, some are small. And there’s only about three recurring characthers of importance (the new president, the head of a drug company who advertised a false vacine, and the person who devised the south african plan to combat the zombies). It will be very interesting movie if they stick to the book which I highly recommend anyone to read regardless of how into zombies you are. There’s so much more to it than slow moving ghouls…

  15. The book is absolutely fantastic. Read it three times. But I’ve always thought, instead of a movie, it would have been better as an HBO mini-series – following the author as he interviewed the people. Each episode could be a chapter.

  16. i have the book man if u want it i will send it to you free its that good u need to read it…..so many stories i can call from but i wont go into it….just say that the one with metsfan is amazing ans will make AWESOME in the movie.

    PS U NEED A LOBO 2 SURVIVE!

  17. Hell Fucking Yes! I’ve recently gotten into the zombie literary genre and after going through about a dozen or so books in the last couple of months I DEFINITELY have to say that World War Z is by far my favorite of the bunch. If people are complaining that it’s disjointed in it’s storyline then guess what………..it’s supposed to be that way. It’s about a reporter gathering interviews from the 4 corners of the globe from survivors of the Great Zombie Apocalypse. The story spans the duration of the epidemic; from patient zero up to how humanity barely makes it through the epidemic. I just hope that they manage to retain 2 major things from the book if nothing else: 1) that they retain the global perspective of the book and show us the battles taking place all over the globe instead of just focusing on the US, which has been beaten to death already by other zombie flicks, and 2) PLEASE KEEP THE UNDERWATER ZOMBIE WARS VS. THE NAVY. That shit was just too cool and it made sense.

  18. Wonderful book. Wonderful AudioBook as well. If you have a chance find a torrent of it, or buy it, or check it out. The audio book is nice to listen to while reading too. It’s just a great book.

    I don’t think a movie is a good idea though.

  19. The book is completely badass. It kicked my ass twice and then I lent it to my bro so it could kick his ass. In zombie lit, it is the finest. HOWEVER, I am a bit apprehensive. Not because I think it will make a bad story, but because the way the book is presented (a series of stories, accounts, interviews). If they shoot the film like the book, it could be weird. Almost like a fictional documentary. And that might be awesome. But if left as is, or adapted to a “narrative film with a central character/hero” it will lose all of it’s great effect.

  20. I love zombie movies and books, but I gotta say I was not blown away by World War Z. Since the book is an assortment of stories/accounts, it was hard to get into it because of its non-linear format. There is no ‘hero’, and you don’t really have time to connect to any character. I’m curious as to how this will all translate to a movie.

  21. The book is written as a historical accounting of a zombie apocalypse, complete with first-hand tales by the survivors. Doesn’t get much better than that. Could be a great movie if they stick to the book.

  22. READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY.

    Listen, I rarely say this. Normally, I say things like, “it might not be your cup of tea” or “I’m not sure what you’re into” or even “If you like X…”

    But I seriously think that this book is a masterpiece and everyone should read it. It’s not a humor book, it is a brilliant piece exploring sociology, politics, and the nature of the human race. I still find reasons to reference it in random conversations and I read it before it came out. I was given a free copy when I worked at the bookstore, and I bought it in hardcover when it was officially released.

    It is one of the best books I have ever read in my life.

    I’m not sure how it will be transferred to a film, really, because there’s almost no moment in it that I would be willing to lose. But since I love a lot of JMS’ previous works, I’m confident that it will be an amazing film. My only thing is that I desperately hope they cast Henry Rollins in the roll he read for the audio book.

    I would give my eyeteeth to work on this film. But really, pick up the book. Today.

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