Since it began filming last year, there have already been several MAJOR complications in adapting the much loved novel “World War Z,” written by Max Brooks. There were already doubts floating around regarding the difficulty of adapting a novel that is written entirely as a oral account. Then when Brad Pitt entered the picture, the internet collectively yelled “mistake!”
And now months after the project was announced it seems to be shambles. It’s budget has skyrocketed to $170 million with no guarantees that the film will make that money back in the box office.
The film’s release has also been delayed by 6 months for extensive reshoots that signaled major issues regarding the film were on the horizon. It was originally supposed to open in theaters on December 21, 2012, however, the studio has set the film back by 6 months opening on June 21st, 2013.
It was also announced last week that the reshoots needed a new writer to fix the script and screenplay. Whatever caused the massive 5 week reshoot was enough to hire a new writer to fix.
The Hollywood Reporter also reported that the director, Marc Forster never found voice for the flick causing much of it be disjointed and without a plan.
Trouble emerged early: Three weeks before shooting was to begin in June 2011, sources say Forster had not made critical decisions about what the zombies would look like and how they would move. “They just couldn’t get it right,” one insider says. “There was a lot of spinning of plates, a lot of talking. [But] they did not have a plan.” […]
“The director was not empowered,” says one insider. “There was nobody that steered the ship […] When you get [a director] who can’t do it all […] you get a struggle as to whose is the singular voice.”
Then a major mistake almost halted much of the filming in Hungary.
Then in October, proceedings were disrupted when a Hungarian anti-terrorism unit raided an airport warehouse and confiscated 85 fully functional automatic assault rifles that were to be used on the shoot. (The guns were not supposed to be operational, and it is illegal to transport such weapons into the country.) With the movie already behind schedule and over budget, Pitt was said to be livid at the mistake – and perhaps wearying of a project that was showing no sign of ending.
Many agree that Paramount should have shelved the project long ago when they were squabbling over the budget. However, the director seems hopelessly optimistic stating that he feels the film should be a trilogy.
“[We] each view World War Z as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of, say, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC’s The Walking Dead“
Despite the film being in the works for over a year , audiences know suspiciously little about the project. We don’t know which first person anecdotes will be included and which will be taken out. We don’t even know the full cast and their respective roles yet.
Though, the question stands, how many more problems will they deal with before the project is shelved? Many movies have been scraped for much less. Will the production company reach a breaking point? Even though these major issues keep slowing down filming and production, I wonder if Brad Pitt will use his star power to have it released no matter whether it is good or bad.
For now, I have high hopes for it even if they keep getting dashed by every news report from the set. Personally, I think fans of the novel should remain cautious until we get a trailer.
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