World War Z movie - Brad Pitt and Paramount! W000T!

[xombiechow]

i love this book...it's just flat entertaining to me and I'd be disappointed if it never gets made into a film. However I'd be much more disappointed if they just rush the thing out and it's a steaming pile of zombie crap. IMHO I think the book could be made into a trilogy...There's just so much they could go into. So I'm saying i'm glad they put it on hold, and I'm hoping they rework the script and they come out with some horror gold.

And for the win I'd pick Ed Norton...he'd rock it.

[churchtech]

I don't know if this has been said (I did not read the whole thread) but JMS is a pretty damn good writer, and he's experienced hollywood screwing with his work. If you've not watched Babylon 5, you should. It's more or less all him, and it's probably the best TV sci-fi show ever, at least in the writing.

I have a very high degree of faith that if he's taken on this project it will be good.

JMS is a liberal, but he's not a flaming nutjob libtard.

[churchtech]

JMS can be a bit sensitive about this sort of thing... Don't read too much into it. He doesn't initially take criticism of his work very well (who does?) but he will listen to it, and often make changes based on feedback. There is one scene in Babylon 5 that was right from a fan who was making a joke at JMS's expense. He was pissed at the time, but the line made it into the next season.

So, Straczynski supposedly posted over at IMDB telling people not to analyze the script or else the movie won't get made. Given that I'm such a complete and total skeptic and cynic, I'm disinclined to believe it's really him, but the screen name was registered 5 years ago according to his profile, the account is authenticated, and his only post was the WWZ one, so either it's his stalker, or him.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/boa ... /103284316

From the Writer
by straczynski 2 days ago (Mon Apr 14 2008 21:48:09)
Ignore this User | Report Abuse Reply
Guys, here's a simple question.

Do you want to see this film made, or just talk about the script?

Studios get very nervous when drafts leak out, and they get even more nervous when people start taking it apart, good or bad, online...it can make them think too many people have seen it, start reconsidering their opinions, and the next thing you know it's back in development hell or gone. I've seen several projects at this sensitive stage literally scuttled by such things.

If all you want is to talk about the script, then great...but if you want to see Max Brooks' novel brought to film, brought to life, and maybe make one of the best zombie movies in a long time, can we declare a moratorium on both analyses and passing around my script (which people shouldn't have in any event) until AFTER the film gets made?

Thanks.

JMS

[Ellie With An Axe]

JMS is a liberal, but he's not a flaming nutjob libtard.

These remarks really serve no purpose except to make members cranky. ZS is made up of all and we like it that way. It also makes no difference if JMS is a black liberal 8-foot gay Irish nuclear physicist (of which I'm sure there are at least two at ZS). He's an awesome writer, the end. And unfortunately, he's also fired and someone else is doing the adaptation now. It sucks. I was excited about JMS as well.

[DFWMTX]

The World War Z movie, Duke Nukem Forever, and the apocalypse.....

:::::tears open envelope:::::

What are three things that people keep talking about which never come? [/Amazing Criskin]

Hiyo!

[xombiechow]

The World War Z movie, Duke Nukem Forever, and the apocalypse.....

:::::tears open envelope:::::

What are three things that people keep talking about which never come? [/Amazing Criskin]

Hiyo!

Nice.

[churchtech]

JMS is a liberal, but he's not a flaming nutjob libtard.

These remarks really serve no purpose except to make members cranky. ZS is made up of all and we like it that way. It also makes no difference if JMS is a black liberal 8-foot gay Irish nuclear physicist (of which I'm sure there are at least two at ZS). He's an awesome writer, the end. And unfortunately, he's also fired and someone else is doing the adaptation now. It sucks. I was excited about JMS as well.

He's still listed as the screenwriter... My other comment was directed at the poster who expected an anti-gun political rant. I suppose I should have quoted the post in question. I didn't figure it was a problem to say that someone was _not_ ******* i.e. defend them from the charge.

[Ellie With An Axe]

Well, first the script was going through some final once-over revisions early this year. So everything looked like it was ready to take off. Then suddenly everything was backburnered indefinitely, and it looked like the movie wasn't going to get made because the director was unhappy with the script and/or wanted to work on other projects first. Then suddenly, JMS was fired and another writer was brought on to totally work up a new script. Then a week or two after that was announced, the directed Marc Forster was fired and a director brought on to replace him.

So now the production schedule is back to square one, and the movie is back in "developer hell". The IMDB page has disappeared (again). Meaning the 2010 release date may or may not still apply.

But since Paramount has already sunk money into getting it written by JMS, and then retaining Marc Forster, and is now going to sink more money into another writer, and retaining another director, I'm sure it'll get made. I think. I think Pitt's a reasonable guy and will probably get it made even if he has to do it himself. [hears collective groan from the thread]

[phil_in_cs]

Ellie just wants to see Brad with his shirt off.

[Ellie With An Axe]

Ellie just wants to see Brad with his shirt off.

Holy @#$% my secret's out!

[trevor3433]

The World War Z movie, Duke Nukem Forever, and the apocalypse.....

:::::tears open envelope:::::

What are three things that people keep talking about which never come?

Hey, one of those is looking more imminent everyday.
I'll give you a hint, it's the apocalypse.

[Ellie With An Axe]

I think this fan below got it right. He made a trailer for what he thinks WWZ looks like. I think it has a good balance between epic drama and epic ass kicking. Which obviously WWZ needs to be both.

Trailer on Youtube

[xombiechow]

I think this fan below got it right. He made a trailer for what he thinks WWZ looks like. I think it has a good balance between epic drama and epic ass kicking. Which obviously WWZ needs to be both.

Trailer on Youtube

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be. IMHO it would be better to make a series of movies or at least a trilogy. I mean you think about the downed pilot, Wanio's experiences, Jessica Hendrix (the go north go north go north experience)...any number of the stories could be their own stand alones. Maybe we'll just have to make em ourselves

[DaJoker]

I think this fan below got it right. He made a trailer for what he thinks WWZ looks like. I think it has a good balance between epic drama and epic ass kicking. Which obviously WWZ needs to be both.

Trailer on Youtube

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be. IMHO it would be better to make a series of movies or at least a trilogy. I mean you think about the downed pilot, Wanio's experiences, Jessica Hendrix (the go north go north go north experience)...any number of the stories could be their own stand alones. Maybe we'll just have to make em ourselves

Pass the hat around, we're starting ZS Productions.
I like the trailer too, I think it was well done and hit on the disaster and reaction rather than the zombies as much.

[xombiechow]

I think this fan below got it right. He made a trailer for what he thinks WWZ looks like. I think it has a good balance between epic drama and epic ass kicking. Which obviously WWZ needs to be both.

Trailer on Youtube

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be. IMHO it would be better to make a series of movies or at least a trilogy. I mean you think about the downed pilot, Wanio's experiences, Jessica Hendrix (the go north go north go north experience)...any number of the stories could be their own stand alones. Maybe we'll just have to make em ourselves

Pass the hat around, we're starting ZS Productions.
I like the trailer too, I think it was well done and hit on the disaster and reaction rather than the zombies as much.

Darn right we should.

[Ellie With An Axe]

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be.

I try and put it into perspective with a real-world event. Either of the World Wars to understand the global catastrophic destruction and suffering, or Katrina, Bosnia, Chernobyl, or something like that to examine it more closely.

And by it, I mean the experience of what it was like, whatever it was. History books will tell you the reasons for everything, but you have to talk to people to actually see what something was like. Personal experience means everything. I can sit in a library and read all day about Hitler's invasion of Poland. But at home I have actual newspapers of the period just before it happened, and I have a book with letters from the front to home during WWII. Imagine if I could talk to someone who lived in France at the time during pleas for peace and feel how they felt. The Diary of Anne Frank is so important because of this reason. History books and UN reports don't give us the human angle we need to understand.

I think it'd be awesome to see an independent production of WWZ. I have no idea how someone could make that happen without paying through the nose for the rights, but I'm all for a between friends, for-fun knockoff of some of those really cool passages like the ones you mentioned, chow. A long time back I even made a fanmix to go with some of those really cool passages. Hm, I need to zip that up and upload it somewhere...

[xombiechow]

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be.

I try and put it into perspective with a real-world event. Either of the World Wars to understand the global catastrophic destruction and suffering, or Katrina, Bosnia, Chernobyl, or something like that to examine it more closely.

And by it, I mean the experience of what it was like, whatever it was. History books will tell you the reasons for everything, but you have to talk to people to actually see what something was like. Personal experience means everything. I can sit in a library and read all day about Hitler's invasion of Poland. But at home I have actual newspapers of the period just before it happened, and I have a book with letters from the front to home during WWII. Imagine if I could talk to someone who lived in France at the time during pleas for peace and feel how they felt. The Diary of Anne Frank is so important because of this reason. History books and UN reports don't give us the human angle we need to understand.

I think it'd be awesome to see an independent production of WWZ. I have no idea how someone could make that happen without paying through the nose for the rights, but I'm all for a between friends, for-fun knockoff of some of those really cool passages like the ones you mentioned, chow. A long time back I even made a fanmix to go with some of those really cool passages. Hm, I need to zip that up and upload it somewhere...

i 100% agree El. It'd be a blast putting something like that together. Maybe this is something that would be better left to the fans . I'm telling you...individual movies or shorts would be awesome because to do it right the movie would have to be about 6 or 7 hours long lol. Besides us LOTR fans who would wanna sit that long in a cinema?

[Bubba Enfield]

I think this fan below got it right. He made a trailer for what he thinks WWZ looks like. I think it has a good balance between epic drama and epic ass kicking. Which obviously WWZ needs to be both.

Trailer on Youtube

Awesome, thanks for that. He included "The Trooper"! Hell yeah!

I'd really like to see this either go straight to DVD, or play on some cable network as a series first. Most of the chapters could make a 45 min. episode, and a few chapters could be combined into one ep.

[DaJoker]

Hey I think that was very well done. I agree...it's not so much of the blood and guts gore..which i'm sure there will be plenty, but i think the root of the book is the personal experience and how globaly epic that would be.

I try and put it into perspective with a real-world event. Either of the World Wars to understand the global catastrophic destruction and suffering, or Katrina, Bosnia, Chernobyl, or something like that to examine it more closely.

And by it, I mean the experience of what it was like, whatever it was. History books will tell you the reasons for everything, but you have to talk to people to actually see what something was like. Personal experience means everything. I can sit in a library and read all day about Hitler's invasion of Poland. But at home I have actual newspapers of the period just before it happened, and I have a book with letters from the front to home during WWII. Imagine if I could talk to someone who lived in France at the time during pleas for peace and feel how they felt. The Diary of Anne Frank is so important because of this reason. History books and UN reports don't give us the human angle we need to understand.

I think it'd be awesome to see an independent production of WWZ. I have no idea how someone could make that happen without paying through the nose for the rights, but I'm all for a between friends, for-fun knockoff of some of those really cool passages like the ones you mentioned, chow. A long time back I even made a fanmix to go with some of those really cool passages. Hm, I need to zip that up and upload it somewhere...

i 100% agree El. It'd be a blast putting something like that together. Maybe this is something that would be better left to the fans . I'm telling you...individual movies or shorts would be awesome because to do it right the movie would have to be about 6 or 7 hours long lol. Besides us LOTR fans who would wanna sit that long in a cinema?

If it was produced well and there was an intermission maybe haha. But hey, if the movie turns out badly any reinterpretation could be considered a spoof or just run a slightly different story under a slightly different name.

[Ellie With An Axe]

Bubba, 45 minute eps would be about right. I'd say a "season" of 6 episodes would be enough for HBO or Starz (holy hell... have you seen the new series "Spartacus" Starz is making?? #classicalhistoryactionmoviexenageeksquee)

But the book could easily be split into 2 or 3 of these shortened seasons. Or, just one 6-hour miniseries and play up the best of the book.

[xombiechow]

all these ideas would be better for the whole of the story than trying to cram it into a mass consumer friendly movie...ya know? I've been trying to think of which story/stories would be easiest to do low budget...and do well i mean...not just try to do all the big action scenes but the more intimate personal encounters maybe to start with.

[Ellie With An Axe]

You know that really really short story that a woman tells, and she says when this was all beginning and they still weren't sure what was up, that the dog was barking and the husband went out to the back yard to see? That's one of the very shortest stories in the book that stuck with me. It should be in the film, if for nothing more that it's not a unique story about above-average people doing anything extraordinary. It's just a blip in time about this man and woman and their dog before all hell breaks loose.

I like the big stories, but the littler stories are the flavor for me. A story I really want to know more about, but was only hinted at in the book, is Five Colleges. That's a story that needs to be fleshed out. I mean, in the book they made a whole freaking documentary film about that event that was very popular and helped give people back their morale. Yet Brooks just makes it a blip on the radar before moving on. Gah.

I would love to see a short film about the otaku kid, also. There's also one about a guy who shelters in place at his flat in Liverpool but then has to GTFO when supplies run out. I think also the royal family beats feet to Scotland, but doesn't the Queen stay behind in England, to prop up morale? She should totally be out on the balcony at Buckingham flipping off the hoard below. I wanna see that. I also want to see any stories of any places that never had any zombie infestations, like, were the Hebrides safe?

Edit: palace switcheroo

[xombiechow]

You know that really really short story that a woman tells, and she says when this was all beginning and they still weren't sure what was up, that the dog was barking and the husband went out to the back yard to see? That's one of the very shortest stories in the book that stuck with me. It should be in the film, if for nothing more that it's not a unique story about above-average people doing anything extraordinary. It's just a blip in time about this man and woman and their dog before all hell breaks loose.

I like the big stories, but the littler stories are the flavor for me. A story I really want to know more about, but was only hinted at in the book, is Five Colleges. That's a story that needs to be fleshed out. I mean, in the book they made a whole freaking documentary film about that event that was very popular and helped give people back their morale. Yet Brooks just makes it a blip on the radar before moving on. Gah.

I would love to see a short film about the otaku kid, also. There's also one about a guy who shelters in place at his flat in Liverpool but then has to GTFO when supplies run out. I think also the royal family beats feet to Scotland, but doesn't the Queen stay behind in England, to prop up morale? She should totally be out on the balcony at Buckingham flipping off the hoard below. I wanna see that. I also want to see any stories of any places that never had any zombie infestations, like, were the Hebrides safe?

Edit: palace switcheroo

I agree...it's the small more intimate stories that i like better...Brooks really drops the ball on somethings. The five colleges would probably make a darn good book in and of itself. The otaku kid is the japanese master's second in command...and both are 2 of my favorite stories (however out there the hibakusha's sotry is.) The first story you mentioned would probably be one of the easiest to do low budg. If you could find about 70 people to play zombies the fighter pilot's story could be pretty easy to the actress would have to rock though.

[TheGunslinger]

?

It's been a while since I've read the book, but I don't recall the man, woman and dog one at all.

Unless you mean the one where she's talking about how she rips the zombie off her kids? But...there's 2 kids in that one as well?

And the guy in the flat in Liverpool? I don't recall that one, either....unless it's the bloke with the Claymore sitting under a tree, but I thought he was in a castle somewhere.

H'mmm...might have to go re-read the book!