Lindelof talks World War Z struggles

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

At this point we all know of the problems that plagued the set of WORLD WAR Z which included the budget sky rocketing to around $200 million, re-writes of the script and the reshooting of 40 minutes of additional footage in order for them to find a coherent ending. Things certainly haven't been easy for the flick.

Damon Lindelof — who was brought in to salvage the script and its "incoherent ending" — spoke to Vanity Fair about some of the film's struggles and how he basically gave the studio just two options:

Is there material that can be written to make that stuff work better? To have it make sense? To have it have emotional stakes? And plot logic and all that? And Road Two, which I think is the long-shot road, is that everything changes after Brad leaves Israel.” That meant throwing out the entire Russian battle scene—or about 12 minutes of footage—and crafting a new ending. “I didn’t think anyone was going to say, ‘Let’s throw it out and try something else,’ ” Lindelof recalls. “So when I gave them those two roads and they sounded more interested in Road B”—which meant shooting an additional 30 to 40 minutes of the movie—“I was like, ‘To be honest with you, good luck selling that to Paramount.’

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this thing finally turns out and I really hope they have a hit on their hands because a big-budget zombie flick doesn't come around all too often. And you have to hand it to the entire crew who worked on this film because things were never easy from the get-go and they still managed to put something together — whether it will be good or not is the real question.

WORLD WAR Z will hit theaters on June 21, 2013.