A lot of people seemed to be pretty excited about an adaptation of the Max Brooks novel, World War Z. The book tells the story of a zombie outbreak and the human fight against them told through various first-person accounts of the devastating event.
A movie adaptation of the book has been in the works for a long while now with Brad Pitt attached to star and his Plan B Entertainment producing. The script was originally written by J. Michael Straczynski and recently rewritten by Matthew Michael Carnahan, with Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster locked to helm the project. Even with the long developmental period all signs pointed to World War Z being a huge future blockbuster, but now Paramount Pictures is having second thoughts…and they might just call it off completely.
Sources are indicating that right now, as it stands, Paramount is excited about the movie but they don’t want to risk going all-in without a co-financier. The cost of making World War Z is currently estimated at around $125 million, and they just don’t want to throw down that kind of coin without someone else there to sink or swim with them.
You might think this caution would be because a post-apocalyptic zombie war movie is a guaranteed R-rated production and big budget R-rated blockbusters, as we all know, are something that Hollywood studios simply don’t have the balls to back, even if movie-goers are buzzing with excitement over them. But this is not the case. A deal between Paramount and Forster to guarantee a PG-13 final cut was already reached, so it’s really just about not having to spend all that money alone. The studio is currently talking to multiple companies in hopes that one of them wants in.
And now, knowing this is definitely a PG-13 zombie movie if it ever happens, your collective interests in this movie have likely dropped a significant percentage anyway. So do we even care if it gets made anymore? What do you think?
[Source: Vulture]
