“World War Z’s Production Was Messier Than a Zombie Apocalypse” Collider

The big picture

• That of Brad Pitt
  World War Z
  was a difficult production from the start, with clashes between the director and writers causing delays and rewrites.
• Budget overruns plagued the film, with forgotten purchase orders and unexpected expenses sending it over budget just weeks after filming began.
• The final action sequence in Russia was almost a legal disaster, as a raid on the crew’s warehouse uncovered fully functional weapons that had been transported illegally. The charges were eventually dropped, but the footage shot in Budapest did not make it into the final film.

That of Brad Pitt The action-packed, effects-packed 2013 zombie apocalypse film is one of – if not the – highest-budget and highest-grossing films in the genre. It’s the type of movie that feels tailor-made for a franchise and even features an open-ended conclusion that screams “sequel bait.” Yet, more than 10 years after its release, no sequel has ever been produced, and this could be because the original production of World War Z was about as disastrous as a full-blown zombie apocalypse.

Loosely based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks (besides, the son of Mel Brooks And Anne Bancroft), the film revolves around UN investigator Gerry Lane, played by Pitt, who suddenly finds himself and his family trapped in a swarm of raging, fast-moving undead. We then follow Lane as he travels the world in search of a cure. It’s quite different from the novel, which is structured more like a series of interviews with traumatized veterans of the global war against zombies, each of whom tells their story of survival and how their nation defeated the infected within its borders.

“Production of World War Z was disrupted from the start

Studios were fighting over the rights to adapt Brooks’ novel even before its publication, with a bidding war breaking out between Pitt’s production company, Plan B, and Leonardo DiCapriofrom the Appian Way company. Pitt of course won and, along with Paramount, secured the rights to produce the film in 2006. Michael Straczynskiwriter of Thor And Underworld: Awakening, quickly signed on to write the screenplay. A draft of Straczynski’s script was leaked online in 2008 and was widely praised by critics, at least one of whom made favorable comparisons to Children of men and called on a great horror director such as Peter Jackson Or Sam Raimi to bring it to life. But rather, Marc ForsterDirector of Quantum of comfortwhose production was itself notoriously difficult, was hired to direct the film on Pitt’s recommendation – a decision that almost certainly led to many of the film’s problems down the line.

Forster and Straczynski immediately clash. While Straczynski took a cerebral approach to the script much like that of the source material, Forster wanted a more exciting, action-packed story. Straczynski submitted a rewrite in December 2008, but the director was still not satisfied. The screenwriter then either left the project or was fired, and Matthew Michael Carnahan – action thriller author The kingdom – signed on to revise the script. Meanwhile, Forster’s relative inexperience in directing big-budget action films created more problems. A source told The Hollywood Reporter that just three weeks before filming was scheduled to begin, the director still hadn’t figured out the zombies’ appearance or movement style.

Budget overruns immediately began to pile up

Filming finally began in mid-2011 with an expected budget of over $125 million – an extremely high figure for a horror film at the time – and new complications began to pile up from day one. The team began with a large action sequence set in Jerusalem that was filmed on the small island of Malta. This involved transporting huge quantities of equipment and costumes and recruiting almost 1,000 extras from the local population. Minor filming delays and unforeseen expenses began to pile up. To add insult to injury, as the crew was finishing filming in Malta, a pile of forgotten orders was discovered, totaling millions of dollars that had not been factored into the initial cost estimates , putting the film over budget just weeks later. filming.

Then came the conflicts between Forster and the other people working on the film. Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor John Nelson – who had worked on major productions including Gladiator, Iron ManAnd two Matrix sequels — fell out with Forster over what the director called “creative differences,” and he was ultimately replaced after principal photography wrapped. Forster also clashed with Pitt during filming, and at one point, rumors even swirled that the two were not on speaking terms. But the craziest part of the story was yet to come.

The final action scene almost got Brad Pitt in hot water

The final action sequence was to take place in Russia and would be filmed in Budapest. But on the morning of October 10, 2011, a Hungarian SWAT team raided the warehouse where the team had stored weapons for filming, seizing 85 military-style assault rifles, handguns and grenades. As a source told Us Weekly at the time, the import documents claimed the guns had been deactivated, but in reality they were fully functional. Transporting such weapons into Hungary was illegal, and for a time there were questions about whether Pitt or anyone else in the production would face criminal charges. However, the arsenal was eventually returned to Pitt’s production company and the charges were dropped on technical grounds.

The most interesting thing is that the footage shot in Budapest never even made it into the final film. Concerned that the ending would be disjointed and not fit with the rest of the story, the producers called in Damon Lindeloff – co-creator of Lost and writer on big-budget sci-fi films like 2009’s Star Trek – for yet another rewrite. Lindelof recommended scrapping the original ending and making a completely new one, and the studio agreed. He then brought Lost producer Drew Goddard for help with revisions, and the new ending, which cost about $20 million to film, was approved by Paramount.

In all, World War Z cost over $200 million to produce, and with a reported marketing budget of $160 million, the film is expected to gross around $400 million at the box office just to break even. Yet despite opening a crowded summer slate featuring many more blockbuster action films (Iron Man 3, Steel manAnd Star Trek Into Darkness, to name a few), Pitt’s zombie thriller managed to gross over $540 million worldwide, ultimately saving a film that had practically seemed cursed from the moment of its creation. So if the film ended up being a box office success, why was a sequel never made? It would appear that, as recently as 2019, David Fincher was in talks with Paramount to make a second part, with Pitt expected to return as the lead, but the studio refused to approve the budget. After the nightmare that was the production of the first film, we can hardly blame them.

World War Z is currently available to stream on Paramount+ in the US

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