Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The troubled production life of 'World War Z'


World War Z‘s trip to the screen has been fraught with problems; plagued with pre-production issues like  a Hungarian anti-terrorism unit raided an airport warehouse and confiscated 85 fully functional automatic assault rifles that were to be used on the shoot.” And things got more complicated due to producer and star, Brad Pitt being absent during most critical pre-production issues. And then there is director Marc Forster, who has very little experience with these type of big, expensive tent-pole films seemed out his depth, even failing to sign off on how the zombies would look like mere weeks before production began last fall.

Back in March, Paramount pulled the film from is December release date, and just last week, the word broke that the film will need 6 to 7 weeks of reshoots -which will take place in Budapest in September and October. Word that a film this size would be needing these reshoots lasting that long came as quite a shock to many in the film industry; whole movies are filmed and wrapped in six or seven weeks.  Now it’s clear that there are some serious problems with the film.

It was quietly announced late last week that Star Trek, Lost and Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof will handle the writing on the reshoots, which apparently concentrate on the last third of the film.

World War Z, based on the 2006 novel by Max Brooks, is intended to be a zombie picture with sociological and political overtones. It stars Brad Pitt (who is also producing), Mireille Enos (The Killing), James Badge Dale and Anthony Mackie. There had been many who felt the book was un-filmable, and that may be baring out the truth now.

As far as it is known, Marc Forster is still the director.  

Collider has more.

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