Unfortunately, this success didn't cure the contagion that plagued the property, as the sequel was scrapped after several stop-and-go efforts that included the signing of director David Fincher.
It also clocked Pitt's biggest opening weekend, devouring $66.4 million in its first three days. Yes, they would: World War Z exploded to a box office take of $202.4 million domestically and $540 million worldwide, which were pretty great numbers for a film with such a troubled production history. With that kind of momentum behind the project and director Marc Forster - a veteran of the James Bond franchise and critically acclaimed dramas like Monster's Ball - on board, the stage seemed set for World War Z to be a new kind of zombie movie: Serious-minded, and perhaps even award-worthy. Straczynski's script also ended up on the 2007 Black List, an annually compiled survey of the film industry's favorite as-yet-unproduced screenplays. Comparing it in scope to the Academy Award-nominated apocalyptic thriller Children of Men, McWeeny offered up the description of a script that kept the book's interview-based structure, painting a picture of a post-war world in which people are "starting to wonder if survival is a victory of any kind." A leaked version of the script made its way into the hands of the film nerds at Ain't It Cool News, where it was called Oscar-worthy by that site's Drew "Moriarty" McWeeny. Straczynski was a much-loved name in genre fan circles, and his work on World War Z touched a nerve with exactly that audience. This, then, is a look back at the ending of World War Z - and how it went from prized source material to hailed script to problem production to box office hit. Audiences embraced it, but those who were hoping for a faithful adaptation of Brooks's work were left wondering how exactly they'd gotten here. This, after a production cycle that saw rewrites, reshoots, and an entirely re-envisioned third act. When the film finally arrived in theaters, however, the finished product bore little resemblance to its source material, presenting a Pitt-led action thriller with ghoulish monsters who attacked in sprinting waves.
When Paramount purchased the rights to Brooks' book for the A-list actor, fans were understandably excited about World War Z's prospects on the big screen. The book, portrayed as an oral history from survivors of mankind's all-out battle against annihilation by shambling zombies, was a critical and commercial success.which, of course, made it ripe for filmic adaptation.Įnter Brad Pitt and his Plan B Entertainment production company. When author Max Brooks brought us World War Z in 2006, however, he injected new life into well-trod territory by offering up a global after-the-fact perspective on the kind of apocalyptic outbreaks usually related through ground-level narrative. Ever since George Romero essentially set the template with his 1968 horror classic The Night of the Living Dead, pop culture has served up so many zombies that it might seem that every angle on reanimated corpses had been explored.