Max Brooks’ World War Z is a masterpiece of modern zombie fiction. Successfully merging the traditional zombie tropes with a grand scale and an eerie realism that makes the story of the great Zombie War come alive. So at the height of Zombie popularity it is a natural that the book would be getting the big screen treatment.
On the surface everything seemed good for the film, it had a major movie star, a solid director and studio support. Yet something happened along the way, the movie started to fall apart. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the studio is bringing in some help try to right the ship:
Screenwriter Damon Lindelof has been brought in to save Paramount’s zombie movie World War Z… Its release has been pushed from December 2012 to June, 21 2013, and is awaiting significant reshoots. Lindelof, the Lost co-creator and co-author of Ridley Scott and Fox’s Prometheus, is said to be focusing on World War Z’s third act. The production hopes to begin reshoots in September or October.
The book has a pretty non-film friendly structure so it is no surprise that they are having difficulty on the writing end of things. It is just unfortunate that the problems are only just now being addressed after the main production and not much earlier in the process. Linedlof is a big idea guy, so hopefully he can crack the code.
The Flickcast will retain optimism on the project, keep posted for any new updates as they develop.