"World War Z coming soon to theaters...." Topic

Starring Brad Pitt link

Brad Pitt; I'll pass.

Gee, does he?? Sheesh…

Bob

I'm afraid Hollywood will turn this into PG-13 crap, or worse.

I hope I'm wrong.

That is one of the worst kept secrets of Horrywood.

I just do not see a role for Mister Pitt, but I did cast Bill Maher and Anne Coulter in an early scene the first time I read it.

Brad Pitt = fail

I do not see how Brad Pitt is a failure button…he brings a face and a budget…if it were an unknown or a lesser known then it would create less interest and less money…those would be fail points for me.

I do not care who has the lead, just do it right.

… just do it right.

Yes, the tanks and coat colors and facings must be correct.

This has been in production for a while now. Lots of problems with writing, budget, etc. I'm afraid it might turn out to be a bust but I hope Hollywood proves me wrong.

With Mr Pitt involvment comes the need to tone it down to make it available to the masses. I don't think WWZ story will benefit from that…

Hopefully this will be right up there with Zombieland and 28 Days Later. The latter was quite intense. Both are instant classics in my book. I would hope this film is closer to 28 Days Later though as the scariness needs to be there.

I am not sure where Brad Pitt would make this a bad film. He is a decent actor and will draw a larger audience.

"I am not sure where Brad Pitt would make this a bad film. He is a decent actor and will draw a larger audience"

Puts a spotlight on this and nods approvingly.

And the reference of "just do it right" was of course, as anyone I would have thought would have connected, was the zombies…

28mm man said

"I do not see how Brad Pitt is a failure button…he brings a face and a budget…if it were an unknown or a lesser known then it would create less interest and less money…those would be fail points for me."

Shaun of the Dead was a huge success, the cast being up until that point a bunch of comedians and writers from very cult, obscure British sitcoms and sketch shows like Spaced, Black Books and Big Train. Now look at them. To be hoenst when I heard Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright were going to try for a feature-length movie I thought it was too good to be true but they pulled it off brilliantly. It can be done without a face and without "interest and less money" and it can be done well.

To echo some other sentiments here; I'm not questioning Pitt's abilities as an actor, he's done some good work, it's just with big A-list stars does come (or tends to come) a push to make the film become more mass-appeal. I've never read the book and I probably never will (I'll just probably never get round to it), but from what I hear here it's pretty intense which is the key point for hte story, and what people want.

Good call…Shaun of the Dead is one of those exceptions…great movie.

Hopefully it all works out to the better side of good :)

The exception? As far as Zombie movies are concerned, I would say it's almost the norm.

Few very good Zombie movies packed star power. And those that do (Resident Evil) aren't that good imho.

Pitt's production company (Plan B) is producing the moving so it is no surprize that Brad will be staring and it has been rumored/assumed for a while.

Pitt starring in what role – as the author/interviewer?

Well, Brad Pitt was in Fight Club, an edgy movie based on an edgy book. No attempt was made to tone it down for the movie. The author even thinks the movie is better than the book.

I don't think WWZ will make for a good movie. There is just too much to it to do the book justice in a 2-3 hour feature movie. WWZ needs to be a mini series like Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Then the story could be told the 'right' way from the book's standpoint.

The book's chapters do build a bit on each other in that they build up a story. But each part is very different with different characters appearing from story to story. Honestly, it is more like an anthology of stories than a pure novel with a set cast.

Now you could use a big name to be the 'author' and that character could pull the whole story together, but! That misses the whole point of the book. In the story's prologue the author goes out of his way to take HIMSELF out of the story! In fact the author only appears from time-to-time as asking questions or to prod the storyteller to move the 'story' along.

That's going to be a really tough part of the story for a movie with a big name. How is Pitt going to fit into this without taking the story over? This is an 'oral' history from several different 'people' with only a couple of them reappearing to tell a 'second' story.

I'll check it out because the whole thing has me curious.

I agree Tgunner. I wish HBO had picked it up first or something. This would be an amazing miniseries.

Brad is going to be the interviewer.

I am sure there will be mostly voice over work with Pitt. He has done a couple cartoons, so he is not opposed to not getting much "face time".

The first rule of WWZ is, you do not talk about WWZ.

WWZ alternate title? "Inglorius Basterds 2 – Now with zombies!" LOL

There is no way this movie adaptation can do the book full justice, since as some of you said WWZ simply has too many POV's and individual testimonies. It'll probably just cover some selective highlights, like the S. African plan and the Yonkers fiasco.

I'm not a Brad Pitt fan, but he's a proven actor in movies like the aforementioned Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys and Benjamin Button. His acting was intentionally bad in Inglourious Basterds.

Notwithstanding , I've become a big Max Brooks fan. His two zombie books are both cerebral and insightful, and he displays the knowledge of someone who's well read in matters of geopolitics, national policymaking, history, and human sociology and psychology. Who knew that the son of the legendary funnyman would display such a different sense of humor than his father?

Wasn't Pitt also in the follow up film to Lock,Stock and Two smoking barrels – Snatch, as a pikey (gypsy) fighter – he was good in that too.

What is wrong with Brad Pitt, aside from being a brilliant actor, he has a wonderful sense of humor as well, and he and George Clooney do a LOT of work with the Atheist Community of the USA in working to advance the teaching of the sciences and critical thinking in the USA…

And, Zombies are just cool when they are done right. Zombies are the ultimate straight man for a joke.

I can just see a zombie, every morning, drawing a line across its head that says "Don't cut here." Of course, this line is for the Zombie's benefit, as he might mistakenly cut his own brain off while shaving, because, you know that hair keeps growing after you're dead… How else do you think all of those zombies keep from getting floor length beards in the months to years after the Zombie Apocalypse.

"Few very good Zombie movies packed star power"

I would be curious, and this is just a question and not some kind of attack :) but how many "good" zombie movies can you think of?

The old B/W classics all had unknowns and were the starters so it is tough not to include them…but were they good movies?

A good movie with zombies…I am having a tough time coming up with a good list.

Shawn of the Dead was good…in several ways…humor, good slow zombies, decent story, and over all an entertaining film.

Zombieland was an interesting romp…plenty of gamer style action and over the top modern zombie theme, the humor was fun…again an entertaining movie.

But "good" zombie movies…there should be, IMO, true horror and the element of fear to be a "good" horror movie.

28 Days/Weeks made an attempt at this…and I am not one to claim movies being preachy (I will bring on the MMA heat over the quality and goodness of Avatar :) but the anti-military rape setup was weeeeeeeeeeeak…great rager zombies…fast zombies put me on edge; and yes I would shoot you in the leg to distract the oncoming fast zombies, because I do not have to outrun them, just outrun you :)

So please, I am genuinely interested in what film qualified as a "good" zombie movie for you my fellow TMPers?

Pretty much all of Romero's films? Braindead? Colin? Shaun of the Dead?

Thing is, the definition of zombie is someone not in control of theirself, and not neccessarily undead, so yes 28 Days Later comes under this. And both those films were pretty good.

Hollywood is a never ending source of humor and horror and not just on screen. Sheesh! I would have expected more from Anne Bancroft's son than these books and .

I thought he was great in Snatch. If you watch his scenes several times and turn the volume up a little,you can actually understand him.

- So please, I am genuinely interested in what film qualified as a "good" zombie movie for you my fellow TMPers? -

Romero's original trilogy first and foremost. Dawn of the Dead is considered a genuine masterpiece of horror and is widely considered as the best Zombie movie ever made. Night and Day of the Dead were also great. Not really funny, either, those are real horror movies.

Land of the Dead was also a good one.

Or the very good remake of Dawn of the Dead, which contains one of the best beginning ever for a horror movie.

Or, while low budget, Lucio Fulci's Zombie.

On the more comical side, but still great Zombie movie you have Return of the Living Dead, Braindead, Dead Snow, Flight of the Living Dead, Grindhouse.

Then more recently indeed the 28 days/weeks movies. And the Spanish REC (nothing funny about that one, either).

Yep, those are what I consider great Zombie movies. There's quite a few of them actually.

"Or the very good remake of Dawn of the Dead, which contains one of the best beginning ever for a horror movie"

Agreed, that was a great beginning to a movie.

I guess the direction I was going was this…if the basis of a "good" zombie movie is not the humor or the peripheral elements, but rather it is all about the zombie element, then what does it matter if a known star wants to be involved?

I wonder if anyone considered that Brad might be a fan of the genre or that book in particular?

Either way I welcome the WWZ movie and hope that the film comes out with a borderline PG-13 or a R rating…less buckets of gore just for shock value and more elements that include non-shaky camera tricks and surprising the random teenager couple from playing hide the intention.

Crossing fingers for a gritty survival story with zombies as a constant, like bad weather or lack of water in the desert, rather than a series of chase scenes…a casual comfort level with the world as it is would be refreshing :)

Maybe Pitt is obsessed with the letter "Z". He is also involved in the production of "The Lost City of Z", in which he is also starring. He is not my pick to portray Fawsett, but that is probably the role he would get.

I enjoyed the book, so I'm looking forward to the movie. I hope it turns out good, but I'm going to set my expectations pretty low. I need to look back at the book to pull some gaming ideas out of it (not just the battle of Yonkers).