For zombie aficionado’s like myself, there is no better book on the genre than Max Brookes’ World War Z. It is written like a UN report on the zombie apocalypse after it happens – an oral history of sorts. There are interviews from people all over the world and explains it from it’s initial outbreak (in China) to the efforts of the world to cope after the zombies are contained.
So when I heard that Brad Pitt had won a bidding war with Leonardo Dicaprio for World War Z – I was stoked. Finally, this amazing book was going to come to life on the big screen. And then in 2008, the first version of the script was released to the internet and I was floored. The script was amazing, simply one of the best adaptations of a novel I had ever seen. The script followed the book with one of the first interviews being Dr. Tsai, the first to encounter the zombies. After, it follows Gerry Lane as he travels the post-war world and interviews survivors of the zombie war who are wondering if survival is a victory post zombies. Ain’t It Cool News reviewed the script and said “This isn’t just a good adaptation of a difficult book… it’s a genre-defining piece of work that could well see us all arguing about whether or not a zombie movie qualifies as ‘Best Picture’ material”. I couldn’t have agreed more.
So imagine my surprise when I saw the trailer this week… and the movie is totally unrecognizable from Max Brooks’ story:
It releases on June 21st, which is the day before my birthday so of course, I will be going to see it. However, I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it because it seems to be such a departure from the novel.