I am currently reading Max Brooks’ WORLD WAR Z and I must admit it’s pretty goddamned great. The images it evokes are so epically frightening that I literally get goosebumps frequently – and I’m not just saying that. So the fact that a large-scale movie is being made really butters my bread, but of course I’m also quite skeptical that it will capture the very particular mood of the book, such is my pessimistic nature. J. Michael Straczynki (Eastwood’s CHANGELING; BABYLON 5) is currently writing the screenplay for director Marc Foster (QUANTUM OF SOLACE) and spoke with MTV about his adaptation. Based on what he says, I think it’s looking good…
“We talk about it as a thriller, the closest comparison being ‘The Bourne Identity.’ Most zombie movies to this point have been small, focusing on a few people in a house. And this has got real scare. You’re in India with hundreds of boats trying to get out of there with a tidal wave of zombies. The scale of what we’re doing here is phenomenal.”
Incidentally, what he’s describing – the sea of zombies in India – is perhaps my favorite excerpt from the book. At this point anyway. If that sequence is done right, then I’ll be a happy man.
“The fictional concept of the book is that its written by someone with the UN, so let’s tell that story,” he explained. “Let’s show the book being written. We follow this guy all over the world as he goes on these interviews, and he has his own personal story as well. You’re cutting between the past and the present, how he got to this point.”
“It has that international feel to it, and because it goes backward and forward in time, we can cherry-pick our favorite moments in the book,” continued Straczynski. “Some of it is crazy in scale. It’s huge. It’s as political as the book was. And it ends with that book being completed.”
Like I said, looking pretty good… Stracznski mentions that he’s working with Foster’s notes at the moment, and they hope to go into production by the first of the new year. Fingers crossed that these guys know what they’re doing, because this could end up being the zombie epic we’ve always dreamed of.
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