World War Z News

“World War Z” Will Get Month-Early Screening on Tuesday


Exclusive: Marc Forster’s “World War Z,” which cost well over $200 million and stars Brad Pitt, doesn’t open until June 21st. But on Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles there will be a couple of early tastemaker screenings. They’re designed to “test the water” with friends and celebrity fans of Forster and Pitt. These are hot hot tickets. The whole “WWZ” debacle is chronicled very nicely in the current Vanity Fair.

In Cannes, news of the screenings are making people look for Star Trek type tele-porters so we can beam back to the States for two hours. If anyone knows where they are located on the Cote d’Azur, please let me know.

At the same time I can tell you exclusively that Forster is not waiting around for his next assignment. He’s forming a production entity with Keanu Reeves and producer Cassian Elwes to make a bunch of movies. They should announce it imminently. Forster must get back to quality film making– he directed Finding Neverland and Monster’s Ball. Enough with the zombies

World War Z Game Coming At You May 30


They’re coming. How will you survive and will you be prepared?

Before the Zombie threat invades theaters worldwide on June 21st, Paramount Digital Entertainment and award-winning Phosphor Games Studio bring global apocalyptic panic to you in the newly announced World War Z game. Set to release on May 30, the game will launch on iOS and select Android devices.

Offering a fully immersive experience, players are dropped into the middle of the World War Z chaos. Casual and core gamers will both love the game’s action-packed first person experience and electrifying story. Featuring 28 visceral levels, intense combat, engaging puzzles, upgradable weapons and armor, an unlimited challenge mode, and a global scale, this game challenges you: play to survive.





“We loved the rich world that the filmmakers created, and are thrilled to tell a story that runs parallel to its film counterpart,” said Amy Powell, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment



melissa Thompson

Six Things We Learned While Watching 'World War Z' with Brad Pitt

By Rick Marshall May 23, 2013
There are still a few more weeks to go before World War Z brings its unique spin on the zombie apocalypse to theaters, but Paramount Pictures hosted an early screening of the film Wednesday night with a surprise guest: star and producer Brad Pitt.

Pitt dropped by a packed theater in Hoboken, New Jersey, to introduce the late-night screening of his upcoming horror film based on Max Brooks' celebrated novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. A full review will hit Movies.com closer to the film's June 21 release, but here are a few (spoiler-free) things we learned from last night's screening:



1. Zombies Love New Jersey (and New Jersey Loves Zombies)

While introducing the film, Pitt offered a brief explanation for the Hoboken screening: “They said we've got to do a showing in the city for the media and some friends... so we decided there's no better place to do that than Jersey.”

Although this might seem like lip service for the hometown audience, New York City's next-door neighbor does factor prominently in the film, with several key scenes set in Newark, New Jersey (and nearby Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Strangely, postapocalyptic Newark doesn't look that much different from real-world Newark. (Zing!)



2. The Living Dead Are a Global Problem

What really sets World War Z apart from other recent zombie movies is the global scope of the story, which gives audiences a look at the international implications of a living-dead apocalypse, well beyond what happens to a small group of survivors (the typical focus of zombie films).
As a former UN investigator, Pitt's character travels around the world over the course of the film, and discovers how different geographic regions have weathered (or been obliterated by) zombie hordes.

3. These Aren't Your Average Walkers

The zombies of World War Z lie somewhere between the shambling, mindless drones of classic zombie movies (and The Walking Dead) and the clever, almost superhuman creatures of films like the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. They're fast, but only as fast as the person they once were. And how do they find their food? Well, you'll have to learn about that element for yourself..

4. It Has Brad Pitt's Guarantee

The star and producer of World War Z has a big stake in the film's success, and he's not above making some bold promises regarding the film. During his setup for the screening, Pitt told the New Jersey crowd, “We've got a monster film for you. It's epic, scary as hell, and I guarantee it's the most intense thing you're going to see all summer
5. It Puts the Disease Back in “Zombie Plague”

Along with the global scale of the film, World War Z also offers a distinctly different take on the spread of the disease – especially the notion that it is a disease. The film blends the tone of procedural viral outbreak thrillers with all the jump-scares of zombie horror, with a splash of international politics and military strategy thrown in for good measure.



6. It Gives New Meaning to “Crowd-Sourced”

Early trailers for the film offer a nice hint of what's to come regarding the massive crowds of zombies that – quite literally – fill the world of World War Z. Whether they're scrambling over each other to scale a wall or pouring down a narrow alleyway, the zombies of World War Z are a tide of living-dead destruction.

Overall Reaction

More than anything else, however, the most prominent lessons taught by World War Z are that there's still some life left in the zombie genre, and that when it comes to tales of the living dead, bigger can indeed be better. While it's not a chapter-by-chapter adaptation of the book that inspired it, the new film should offer a lot to like for fans of the novel and anyone else looking for a fresh take on the zombie apocalypse.


Categories: Features, Horror
Tags: World War Z, Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt's World War Z Isn't Just 'Mayhem Porn'

Posted: 05/23/2013 12:56 pm

I saw World War Z last night at a small screening at the MoMA. There were a few journalists, some industry types and a pretty large collection of celebrities: Bruce Willis and his wife, Emma Heming; Sting and Trudie Styler; Kevin Bacon; Jemima Kirke; one of the Olsen twins (I can never tell which I'm looking at); Oliver Stone; and Darren Aronofsky, in front of whom I humiliated myself at the post-party by mistaking him for screenwriter Damon Lindelof. ("You owe me one!," he said, laughing, as he walked away. Indeed I do.)

Before seeing the film, I read the Vanity Fair cover story about how the filmmakers scrapped the original ending and created a whole new one, written on very short notice by Lindelof and his friend Drew Goddard and shot with about 20 actors. Once you've read the VF story, you'll be able to see where the shift happens -- it's just over an hour in, when Pitt leaves Jerusalem on a plane. I don't want to spoil the movie, so I'll just say this: instead of getting even bigger, the story gets much smaller. The original ending had Pitt squaring off with zillions of zombies; this one has him facing a more personal, even intellectual challenge. There's action, but it's confined.
think it works, though I suspect some people who see the movie cold will wonder why its scale contracted instead of expanding. The reason, according to the article, was to keep things focused on the characters.

Brad Pitt introduced the movie and spent a good long time socializing at the party afterward. Earlier in the night, he made a surprise appearance in New Jersey. So clearly, he's invested in the success of World War Z. One journalist I talked to, who didn't like the movie as much as I had, wondered why Pitt had bothered to make it. This person thought Pitt should stick to making films like Moneyball. It's an interesting question. I think Pitt, whose company, Plan B, produced the film, would like to prove that he can create and sustain a bankable franchise. But I also think the themes of the movie appealed to him. He liked the idea of a global action movie. There's also an environmental critique bubbling under the surface of World War Z, even if it starts strong (the opening montage is heavy on global-warming references) and quickly peters away. But maybe the biggest selling point was the emphasis on family. Pitt's character, Gerry Lane, begins the movie as a stay-at-home dad, and the safety of his wife (played by Mireille Enos of The Killing) and two daughters remains his primary concern throughout.

That family focus is one reason World War Z felt like something other than just another serving of apocalyptic mayhem porn (though there's plenty of that). And I think that's why it was smart to reduce the scale for the last hour, reminding us that Pitt's character is a man and a father -- not just a soulless killing machine

I'm curious to see how this all looks in 3D (before the film, Paramount CEO Brad Grey informed the audience that director Marc Forster is still finishing the 3D conversion), and I'm curious to know what a paying audience will think. But for now, at least, the dark rumors that World War Z would be dead-on-arrival appear to have been greatly exaggerated.

In honor of last night’s fans’ screening of World War Z in New Jersey, hosted by star Brad Pitt, Paramount has released a new poster for the film featuring the superstar front and center.

The one-sheet finds Pitt’s Gerry Lane from high above, overlooking the mayhem below caused by the zombie apocalypse. Although it is slightly different than this World War Z poster, some might argue it kind of looks frankly… the same.



Read more <a href="http://www.moviefanatic.com">movie news</a> at: http://www.moviefanatic.com/2013/05/world-war-z-poster-brad-pitt-stands-tall-against-zombie-invasion/#ixzz2UD91ytsW

WORLD WAR Z starring Brad Pitt Special Screening in 3D
Informations
1560 Broadway,New York

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Organized by : New York City International Film Festival

2 Variant Character Posters Of Brad Pitt In ‘WORLD WAR Z’
May 23, 2013
Check out these 2 new variant character posters of Brad Pitt that Paramount Pictures has released for Marc Forster’s upcoming film adaption titled World War Z that can be seen down below!

The film based on Max Brooks’ best-selling novel “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War”, hits theaters on June 21 and also stars Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, and David Morse and revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt) who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.

Win a pair of tickets to the World Premiere of World War Z

And you get to see Muse play at Horse Guards Parade
Fri, 24/05/2013 - 12:07 by Tim Chipping
To celebrate the release of World War Z, in cinemas 21 June (cert 15 TBC), we have teamed up with Paramount Pictures UK to offer you an amazing prize. We have a pair of tickets up for grabs to the world premiere of the new movie WORLD WAR Z on June 2, followed by a live performance by the band Muse at Horse Guards Parade Ground St James's Park.



Read the whole story on Holy Moly! http://www.holymoly.com/film-dvd/competitions/win-pair-tickets-world-premiere-world-war-z66889#ixzz2UDClqTIr
The best celebrity gossip site in the world.

Muse to perform at World War Z film premiere in London

Muse are to perform at the world premiere of Brad Pitt's new film, World War Z, on 2 June.

The band will play tracks from their last album, The 2nd Law, from St. James's Park while the premiere takes place in Leicester Square.

World War Z is about ex-UN investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who is in a race against time to stop a pandemic which is threatening the world.

It also stars The Killing actress Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.

Tickets for the Muse concert go on sale at 9am on 28 May.

Brad Pitt premieres World War Z


Brad Pitt has shown his new film World War Z to VIP guests at a special screening

24 May 2013

Brad Pitt has premiered his high anticipated zombie movie World War Z in New York and New Jersey.
The star of the film held a star-studded screening at New York's museum of modern art, MoMa, to premiere the film, reported the New York Post.

Guests who joined him for the horror flick included Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Oliver Stone, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Jimmy Fallon, Darren Aronofsky, Sting and Trudie Styler.

The Moneyball actor reportedly told the audience that he was humbled at seeing so many of his friends in the room and even felt shy at some of the big names that turned up.

Brad's partner Angelina Jolie did not attend the after party, but the guest list was still impressive with Julianna Margulies, Ryan Murphy, Marina Abramovic and Ashley Olsen all making an appearance.

Brad left the party at 10.30pm to hop over to New Jersey, where he made a surprise appearance at two fan cinema screenings.

He told an excited crowd: "We can't do it without showing it to the people we made the film for. You gotta do a screening for the fans. So we decided no better place to do that than New Jersey."

World War Z, about a race to defeat a zombie pandemic sweeping the globe, is released on June 21.

First "World War Z" Reviews are Surprisingly Very Positive
Posted: May 23rd, 2013

Read more: http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=28463#ixzz2UGI2HZVN

WORLD WAR Z Original Score to Be Released 6/18

Read more about WORLD WAR Z Original Score to Be Released 6/18 - BWWMoviesWorld by movies.broadwayworld.com

Exclusive World War Z posters take the destruction worldwideLatest - Paris and Mexico City fall

World War Z, as the title suggests, is set to unleash carnage on a global scale.

Fittingly, a bunch of new posters will reveal the destruction wrought across major cities worldwide, and you’ll be able to see them all here.

First up, we’ve got the posters for Berlin and Rome (check back later in the week for the complete set).

Check out the posters below:

BERLIN




ROME



PARIS



MEXICO CITY



[Click on the posters to see them in hi-res]

World War Z sees Brad Pitt’s UN representative Gerry Lane enlisted to help in the fight against the undead hordes that are rising up and chowing on the brains of our planet’s remaining healthy citizens.

The film is based on Max Brooks’ novel of the same name, and that tome won plaudits for plotting Earth’s zombie demise in clinical, scientific detail. Expect the adaptation, directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Quantum Of Solace) to aim for a similar, rigorous approach.

World War Z opens in the UK on 21 June 2013.

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Killing Time
Movies, Books, TV, Games and Questionably Deep Thoughts


World War Z is one of the five films this summer I was most worried about (of course I didn’t put Iron Man 3 on there…), but early buzz from screenings is very positive. The back half of the movie was re-written and re-shot, which never bodes well for a film, but it looks like this adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie war may just make it. World War Z hits IMAX, 3D, and plain old theatres on June 21, 2013.

Sneak Peek of World War Z to Air on AMC During The Killing Season 3 Premiere


With Mireille Enos co-starring in both World War Z and "The Killing," it only makes sense that there's going to be a bit of a tie-in between the two projects this weekend with AMC planning to air a new sneak peek of the movie before the TV show's Season 3 premiere.

We'll be keeping our eyes open in case the clip pops up online early, but if not, "The Killing" returns for a third season on AMC this Sunday, June 2nd, at 8/7c, with a special two-hour episode.

As for World War Z, look for it in theatres on June 21st. It stars Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Eric West, Matthew Fox, David Morse, and James Badge Dale

App Review: There Is Nowhere To Hide When World War Z Goes Mobile

One minute you’re relaxing in an upscale coffee shop in the heart of the big city, the next you’re in the back of a moving truck, holding on for dear life as a sea of hungry humanity surges against you. This is World War Z for iOS and Android, and the situation isn’t pretty.

Based on the upcoming movie adaptation of Max Brook’s historical record of the great Zombie War, the mobile game presents a more personal look at how to survive in the post-undead world. The player takes on the role of Doug, a man with an obvious military background who is trying to reach his son a midst the chaos of a global zombie outbreak. The problem is his son is in Japan, and he’s in America.

Luckily Doug has the skills he needs to survive. He’s handy with firearms. He swings a mean crow bar. His insatiable curiosity has him rifling through papers and tapping at computers as he navigates abandoned buildings, something I would not give one shit about if there were zombies flooding — literally flooding — the streets of the town I was in. He’s even got people skills, which is how he hooks up with an altruistic helicopter pilot promising to wait for him atop a tall building until nightfall.



There’s a real story to the World War Z game, cleverly unfolding through a series of mobile phone conversations between Doug and his fellow survivors. Over the course of several conversations we learn more about our heroic avatar. We might even begin to root for him, which is generally a bad idea where zombies are concerned. They’re the epitome of hopelessness, when they aren’t relegated to set dressing for a morality play about humanity or the government being the real monsters.

Gameplay consists of a mix of exploration and combast, similar to Phosphor Games Studio’s previous Unreal Engine 3-powered offerings, The Dark Meadow and Horn. Expect things to touch around every corner. Books give experience points. Documents give experience points and unlock journal entries, fleshing out the game’s back-story. There are computers to tap, bodies to check, bullets to collect — Phosphor Games really wants players to explore, even if it means rushing headlong into situations where you’re facing off against every dead thing in town.

It’s pretty amazing how well World War Z covers its bases, control-wise. There’s a casual tap-to-move. There’s the finger slide. There are virutal joysticks, should you prefer. Shooting can be automatic when a zombie is in your sights, or the much more challenging free aim, because you don’t need no help.



Despite all of the cloning needed to get hundreds of figures on screen at once, knocking over vehicles and making a genreal nuisance of themselves, Phosphor manages to once again demonstrate their mastery of the Unreal Engine 3 on mobile, pulling off a game that could easily pass for a last-gen console offering. What impresses me most is how they still took the time to make sure the zombie hordes had appropriate levels of lens flare.


For a movie tie-in, World War Z is much better than I expected it to be. It feels a lot like Horn and The Dark Meadow stuck in a blender with zombies, messy but satisfying. Not a bad way to end the world.

World War Z

For a movie tie-in, World War Z is much better than I expected it to be. It feels a lot like Horn and The Dark Meadow stuck in a blender with zombies, messy but satisfying. Not a bad way to end the world.

World War Z
Genre: survival horror
Developer: Phosphor Games Studio
Platform: iOS, Android
Price: $5.49/$4.99
Get World War Z from the iTunes App Store.
Available sometime today on Google Play and the Amazon App Store.




Despite all of the cloning needed to get hundreds of figures on screen at once, knocking over vehicles and making a genreal nuisance of themselves, Phosphor manages to once again demonstrate their mastery of the Unreal Engine 3 on mobile, pulling off a game that could easily pass for a last-gen console offering. What impresses me most is how they still took the time to make sure the zombie hordes had appropriate levels of lens flare

Brad Pitt delivers a capable performance in an immersive apocalyptic spectacle about a global zombie uprising.

Waves of startling action counterbalance standard one-man-saves-the-day Hollywood heroics in World War Z, an immersive apocalyptic spectacle that tosses the viewer into the deep end of a global zombie uprising and doesn't let up until close to the end. A bunch of impressive set pieces stitched together rather than a good story convincingly told, this gargantuan production should ride Brad Pitt's name, teeming action scenes and widespread interest in all things zombie to strong box office returns, particularly internationally. Whether it will be enough to compensate Paramount and the assorted producers for the $200 million-plus investment and all their production headaches is something they'll have to sweat out.

our editor recommends
'World War Z' Premiere: The Zombie Apocalypse Starts in LondonMuse to Perform at 'World War Z' Film Premiere In LondonInside the Mind of 'Star Trek Into Darkness' and 'World War Z' Scribe Damon LindelofWhile date-night thrill-seekers should be amply satisfied by this ramrod, pedal-to-the-metal confrontation with a zombie plague, fans of Max Brooks' 2006 best-seller will find much to be disappointed in. Subtitled “An Oral History of the Zombie War,” the savvy, engaging novel was written as a series of postwar interviews with people all over the world that provided a reasonably comprehensive and intriguingly political mosaic portrait of how and why the international calamity played out the way it did.

PHOTOS: 'World War Z' Premiere: The Zombie Apocalypse Starts in London

A faithful adaptation of the book would have structurally resembled Steven Soderbergh's 2011 global-reach thriller Contagion, just as it would have retained loads of political material that, as lead producer Pitt himself has bemoaned, is simply not compatible with the financial imperatives of a big-budget blockbuster. Exhibit A: Brooks (the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft) makes it clear that the zombie outbreak began in China; fearful that this little detail might prevent exhibition in the world's most populous nation, the filmmakers decided that China should go unmentioned.

What could have been an artistically ambitious, multiperspective look at how modern ideological and religious disarray opened the door for catastrophe has, implausibly but understandably, been reduced to the story of a classic reluctant hero's effort to do what the collective global governments and science geniuses cannot: get to the root of why there are suddenly so many drooling, groaning, jerking and amazingly fast-moving ghouls running around the world interested only in feasting on their former fellow human beings.

Having committed to making the film a wire-to-wire exercise in eluding extreme jeopardy, director Marc Forster and his battery of screenwriters (Matthew Michael Carnahan of The Kingdom, Drew Goddard of Cloverfield and TV's Lost, Damon Lindelof of Star Trek Into Darkness, Prometheus and Cowboys & Aliens, as well as Lost, and screen story scribe and original adapter J. Michael Straczynski of Changeling and Thor) have worked out a scenario that feels more like a travel itinerary. Faced with gridlock in downtown Philadelphia that represents the havoc the undead are causing all over the world, retired United Nations troubleshooter Gerry Lane (Pitt) gets his wife, Karen (Mireille Enos), and two daughters as far as Newark before his former boss Thierry (Fana Mokoena) sends a chopper to rescue them from a rooftop and spirit them to the temporary haven of command central aboard an Atlantic Ocean-based vessel.

PHOTOS: Damon Lindelof’s $400 Million Mind

Although it's not entirely clear how Gerry's experience with terrorist actions in Chechnya and Africa make him the world's No. 1 go-to guy to solve the zombie problem, the bearded, long-haired dude is instantly dispatched to rainy South Korea, where he is advised that the North Koreans have cleverly nipped zombieism in the bud through mandatory nationwide teeth extraction. A tense attack drives Gerry back on the plane to head for Israel, the only nation that, as of now, is winning the war against the living dead. From the cockpit, Gerry is startled by what appears to be a nuclear mushroom cloud down below, an arresting vision, to be sure, but one that oddly goes unmentioned thereafter.

The subsequent siege of Jerusalem is unquestionably the great set piece of the film, a spectacular display of the chaotic but comprehensible victory of a staggering number of flesh-eaters finally surmounting the formidable barriers imposed by well-prepared defenders. Covered from all perspectives, from the jammed immigrations lines of sanctuary-seekers to the aerial views revealing the city's warren of ancient corridors and walls, the convulsive action climaxes with Gerry and a scared, wounded but capable female soldier, Segen (Daniella Kertesz), desperately climbing aboard the last plane out, a ride which itself becomes another visceral action interlude of a fairly high order.

Much has been made of how the final act, as originally shot, didn't pan out and was rewritten and refilmed at considerable expense. In the event, the scale and focus of the film is greatly narrowed in the climactic 20 minutes. Set at a top-secret medical research facility in Wales, the sequence is a fairly simple, reasonably well-executed cat-and-mouse game in which Gerry, Segen and a scientist are forced to sneak through a zombie-occupied building to grab a substance that may, or may not, hold the key to stemming the war's tide. The quiet, pared-down nature of the sequence contrasts strongly with everything that's gone before, which is not a bad thing, although the very ending rather flatly wraps everything up in a jiffy.

VIDEO: Brad Pitt Introduces Marc Foster's Zombie Thriller 'World War Z'

There is certainly a tension running through the film between latent serious ambition and lowest-common-denominator-pleasing requirements, with the latter ruling the day most of the time without entirely erasing evidence of the former. Notwithstanding the expectation that the brave leading man and his adored family will somehow come out of it all unscathed, there are a few narrative surprises along the way and an absence of dumb, clunking dialogue that often infects such fare.

Aside from Pitt, who strides through it all capably and without leading-man airs, the cast is fleshed out with mostly little-known actors. Gerry's wife,the U.N. boss and the Israeli soldier, for instance, could easily have been cast with names, but having relatively fresh, nondistracting faces in these roles plays well. Kertesz, in particular, gets a big chance with her part and makes the most of it.

On the craft side, it's easy to see where the money went, as scene after scene overflows with hordes of people (many of them CGI-generated) and elaborate backgrounds. The film is a feast for the eyes (the 3D conversion is very good), while the zombie horror consists mostly of mild jolts rather than shocks. Ben Seresin receives sole cinematography credit, although Robert Richardson was the director of photography on the initial shoot. Marco Beltrami's score is almost always there to supply further adrenaline.

Opens: June 21 (Paramount)

Production: Skydance Prods., Plan B Entertainment/2Dux

The Reviews Are in, and 'World War Z' Is Alive!
For a while there, it looked like World War Z was going to be Brad Pitt's passion project turned hot undead hubristic mess, but the early reviews of the film have now arrived, and — would you look at that — it's actually just a run-of-the-mill summer zombie movie. And that's not a bad thing.

In fact, Scott Foundas of Variety gives World War Z a wholly positive review, calling it "surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative" and praising Pitt and director Marc Forster:

Moreover, the director always keeps the movie rooted in a compelling dramatic situation, with Pitt giving a very appealing turn as the seen-it-all veteran of the world’s worst places whose desire to protect his family trumps his desire to save the world.

The Reviews Are in, and 'World War Z' Is Alive!
Paramount Pictures Share Print article Share on emailEmail article Comments (10) Esther Zuckerman 1,490 Views Jun 4, 2013
For a while there, it looked like World War Z was going to be Brad Pitt's passion project turned hot undead hubristic mess, but the early reviews of the film have now arrived, and — would you look at that — it's actually just a run-of-the-mill summer zombie movie. And that's not a bad thing.

In fact, Scott Foundas of Variety gives World War Z a wholly positive review, calling it "surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative" and praising Pitt and director Marc Forster:

Moreover, the director always keeps the movie rooted in a compelling dramatic situation, with Pitt giving a very appealing turn as the seen-it-all veteran of the world’s worst places whose desire to protect his family trumps his desire to save the world.

That's enough praise for this re-shot, oft-tabloided $200 million adaptation to have gained a few new fans in Hollywood:

Not that Z didn't have its insider fanboys already, but still:

The Reviews Are in, and 'World War Z' Is Alive!
Paramount Pictures Share Print article Share on emailEmail article Comments (10) Esther Zuckerman 1,490 Views Jun 4, 2013
For a while there, it looked like World War Z was going to be Brad Pitt's passion project turned hot undead hubristic mess, but the early reviews of the film have now arrived, and — would you look at that — it's actually just a run-of-the-mill summer zombie movie. And that's not a bad thing.

In fact, Scott Foundas of Variety gives World War Z a wholly positive review, calling it "surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative" and praising Pitt and director Marc Forster:

Moreover, the director always keeps the movie rooted in a compelling dramatic situation, with Pitt giving a very appealing turn as the seen-it-all veteran of the world’s worst places whose desire to protect his family trumps his desire to save the world.

That's enough praise for this re-shot, oft-tabloided $200 million adaptation to have gained a few new fans in Hollywood:

Not that Z didn't have its insider fanboys already, but still:

The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy isn't actually that enthusiastic, but he does calls the movie an "immersive apocalyptic spectacle."

To be sure, World War Z has a lot to live up to, and much of the criticism from reviews so far stems from how reductive the film seems when compared to Max Brooks' text, a savvy political allegory that Paramount optioned in 2006. McCarthy explains how even Pitt was aware how the movie would have to change to be a legit blockbuster. For instance, while the zombie outbreak begins in China in the book, China was removed from the film, being oh-so-important to the movie industry of late. McCarthy writes:

What could have been an artistically ambitious, multi-perspective look at how modern ideological and religious disarray opened the door for catastrophe has, implausibly but understandably, been reduced to the story of a classic reluctant hero's effort to do what the collective global governments and science geniuses cannot: get to the root of why there are suddenly so many drooling, groaning, jerking and amazingly fast-moving ghouls running around the world interested only in feasting on their former fellow human beings.

Hence, some of the more negative reviews that came out overseas in the last 48 hours (it opened early in the U.K.) conclude that Z is just, well, a little boring, is all. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph used some clever plays on British pronunciation to describe this sensation:

The first problem you encounter with World War Z, the new action blockbuster starring Brad Pitt, is how to pronounce the damn thing. Should the last letter be said "zee", to sound like "three", or "zed", to sound like "dead", or "zzz", to sound like the audience?

So there's nothing exciting here? Well, even in his two-star review for the Daily Mail, Chris Tookey admitted that "the film is most impressive in its big set-pieces. The initial panic on the streets of Philadelphia is thrillingly done, as is the fall of Jerusalem to the zombie horde. There's also an effective airborne sequence."

Then comes the ending. No spoilers here, but clearly — and as told in Laura M. Holson's recent Vanity Fair cover story — the movie had real structural problems. World War Z underwent extensive reshoots, as Damon Lindelof was brought in to rewrite the third act. And guess what? It still falls flat, according to some reviewers. Scott Collura at IGN writes that Pitt's character makes a "dumb" choice and the results of said choice are also "dumb." He continues:

Along the way, much of the logic and "real world" feel of the film go out the window as well. Of course, Star Trek Into Darkness and Prometheus' Damon Lindelof was brought in to help fix the film's ending. It shows.

Collin, however, says that "the Welsh finale, in particular, looks spectacularly cheap." Empire's review says there's an unmistakable allusion at the end to "plans ahoy for further instalments [sic], should there be public appetite." And when it comes to scrounging up enough appetite to recoup $200 million and more than seven years in the making, that's where things might turn, well, dire. For now, a shrug is enough for a second life come the U.S. opening on June 21.

Critical Mass

Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' shows signs of life in early reviews




Speculation has swirled ever since "World War Z", the forthcoming zombie disaster movie starring and co-produced by Brad Pitt, was pushed from last winter to this summer by Paramount Pictures to allow for a wholesale rewrite and a reshoot of its final act. Such drastic changes so late in production rarely bode well for the success of a film, but some early reviews suggest "World War Z" might not end up dead -- or undead -- on arrival.

In a glowing review, Variety's Scott Foundas says the film "emerges as a surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative addition to the zombie-movie canon." He continues: "Showing few visible signs of the massive rewrites, reshoots and other post-production patchwork that delayed its release from December 2012, this sleekly crafted, often nail-biting tale of global zombiepocalypse clicks on both visceral and emotional levels, resulting in an unusually serious-minded summer entertainment."

Foundas adds that director Marc Forster ("Quantum of Solace," "Monster's Ball") "handles the large-scale action here with considerable aplomb and much striking imagery," while Pitt, playing a former United Nations troubleshooter, is "a refreshingly human-scaled movie hero, with no outsized strength, agility or superpowers to help him win the day."

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The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy is more measured. On one hand, he says, the film is "an immersive apocalyptic spectacle that tosses the viewer into the deep end of a global zombie uprising and doesn't let up until close to the end." All that action, however, comes at some narrative expense, with "Z" resembling "a bunch of impressive set pieces stitched together rather than a good story convincingly told."

McCarthy adds that fans of the original book by Max Brooks "will find much to be disappointed in," as the novel's multicharacter oral-history format has been "implausibly but understandably" reduced to a one-man show in which Pitt races to save the world.

Empire's Nick de Semlyen says "World War Z" "is slick, tense and hangs together fine, far from the disaster many predicted during its tortured birthing. But it's also just a little bit bland and generic. In particular, horror fans jonesing for grand-scale carnage are unlikely to come away entirely satisfied."

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On the plus side, the "opening salvo is terrific," "the effects are handled well," and on the whole it "just about succeeds on its own merits."

Paul Bradshaw of Total Film says "Z" certainly looks the part: "There’s never been a more impressive horde of flesh-eaters on the big screen. Sprinting, gnashing, leaping and head-butting their way through civilization in a swarm of thousands, the zombie apocalypse finally looks big enough to be believable."

However, Bradshaw says the PG-13 film is "conspicuously bloodless" and "sorely lacking in heart (and with it, any genuine sense of danger)."

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The Telegraph's Robbie Collin agrees with that last part, even calling upon the same turn of phrase: "There’s no heart to be found amid the guts," he writes. Instead, "What we get is a collection of moderately violent action set-pieces untroubled by humor or broader coherence."

Finally, IGN's Scott Collura says "Z" is "less a horror movie than it is a globe-spanning, international thriller, albeit one with zombies in it." He adds, "You could say this is the epic of zombie films … and it works for the most part." But the film's third act is "less effective," and there are visible "fracture lines" left behind by the production problems.

How the rest of the critics — and moviegoers themselves — react to the film remains to be seen. "World War Z" opens June 21.

Brad Pitt Saves His Family In EXCLUSIVE World War Z Stills!


All Brad Pitt cares about is protecting his family! But to do that, he'll have to save the world!

Relax! He's got to do all that in his new movie called World War Z! LOLz!

But srsly, based on what we've seen so far, this looks like the most insanely intense ride of the summer- something that's also been said about Brad Pitt! Ha!

Ch-ch-check out the pics (below) to see how Brad deals with a global pandemic! Spoiler Alert: he does it with perfect hair!

WWZ comes out June 21! To see more scares, make sure to visit the hot zone at WorldWarZMovie.com!

World War Z | Movie review

This apocalyptic blockbuster starring Brad Pitt immerses you in a spectacle of zombie-oriented action from the start and barely allows the audience time to take a breather.

Directed by Marc Foster, and based on a novel by Max Brooks, World War Z follows Gerry Lane (Pitt), a former UN employee and go-to guy, as he tries to run from and beat away − with various implements − a global swarm of uprising zombies in order to secure the safety of his family and the world. If you like zombies, or “Z’s”, you won’t be disappointed. There are on average hundreds of thousands of them per scene. Like horrifying colonies of bacteria, they infest entire landscapes and, unlike your regular zombie thriller, these “Z’s” aren’t susceptible to sunlight so there is constant potential for an encounter.

The visuals are epic, as is the travel itinerary. Leaping from location to location, the patchwork of sets include Philadelphia, New York, South Korea, Israel and Wales, which leaves little room for comic or emotional relief. But perhaps in this case simple calamity is best. For the brief moments that Pitt is stationary and reflective, or trying to call his wife and kids, all you want is for a zombie (or a thousand) to tear manically onto the scene. More often than not, that does indeed happen.

Humanity is decimated in the global pandemic of World War Z – entire populations are reduced to twitching, head jerking, screeching and, when excited by noise, an impressively rapid living dead. Fortunately, in the end it seems some hope may be found when a zombie plane crash scenario lands Pitt in the Welsh Valleys. Adopting the role of amateur scientist, his character attempts to understand and rectify the plague that is slowly but surely wiping out civilisation. After a bit of guesswork and further zombie-dodging, he becomes the guinea pig in a research facility that may hold the cure.

The narrative, depth and character development may be rather lacking but are more than made up for by fun, epic action and zombies galore. There is never a dull moment in this energetic and captivating crowd-pleaser.

Verdict: ★★★★★

Emily May

World War Z is released nationwide on 21st June 2013.

World War Z (2013
Starring Starring Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Daniella Kertesz, David Morse, Matthew Fox, Elyes Gabel

Directed by Marc Forster

To be perfectly honest, World War Z was a movie I had very little enthusiasm over ever since production was announced; sure, it was cool that audiences were going to get an epic zombie blockbuster to enjoy finally and Brad Pitt starring in the film was an intriguing premise (especially considering his production shingle Plan B was producing) but after the first trailer hit earlier this year (and having to endure the same trailer in theaters for four months straight) and the fact that I feel like I've had my fill of zombies lately, I just felt rather indifferent to the mega-budget flick as a whole going into it.

But as it turns out, World War Z is a hell of a lot of fun for a PG-13 action flick and despite its glaring lack of gore (my main grievance with the movie, but more on that later), director Marc Forster does a fantastic job of maintaining a great sense of tension throughout. And despite a saggy mid-section that could have used about 10 minutes shaved off to keep up Forster's generally frenetic pacing, World War Z definitely delivers on giving zombie fans tons of undead eye candy which itself was kind of badass to experience on the big screen.

In World War Z, Pitt stars as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations employee who now spends his day devoting his life to his adoring wife (Mireille Enos) and two young daughters. However when the zombie apocalypse goes down and the entire world goes to hell in mere moments, Gerry is called upon by his former employers to assist an ambitious virologist (Elyes Gabel) in his global search to find a remedy for the disease that is threatening to wipe out the world's population. Leaving his family in government protection on a military ship in the middle of the Atlantic, Lane heads off with a small team to various countries around the world in hopes of figuring out where the outbreak began so that they can come up with a way to fight off the zombie plague before it's too late for humanity.

As a whole, Forster handles all of the spectacle and destruction you'd hope for in a movie of this scope pretty flawlessly, it's just on the character side of things where World War Z falters a bit. We are introduced to a lot of interesting people throughout Pitt's global journeys and yet, Forster never allows the film's focus to shift away from its hero long enough for us to develop much of a connection to anyone else (which is a shame because there are a lot of great performances by several of WWZ's supporting players, especially in the case of both David Morse and Daniella Kertesz who play equally compelling characters).

That's not saying that Pitt isn’t worthy of the attention- he's just as great here in World War Z as he is in anything else he's done (I mean, let's be honest - has Pitt ever given less than a hundred percent to a movie, even if the movie itself wasn't all that great? Probably not.); so while he's absolutely the perfect guy to save the world, it may be that he's just a little too polished for the part which may end up turning some people off. For me personally, I enjoyed what Pitt does in World War Z but at the same time, I just never felt like he was ever in serious jeopardy at all during the film with a few of the life-threatening moments of WWZ working out just a little too perfectly considering just how massive the zombie outbreak is (and we're talking fast zombies too which never helps anyone's chances for survival).

Thankfully, the zombies themselves are both daunting and intimidating, despite being a design we've seen a million times before which means horror fans shouldn't get their hopes up on seeing anything new in regards to the actual design of WWZ's undead antagonists. But what the zombies lack in creative design they make up for in sheer brute force, especially during a truly breathless airplane sequence where Pitt is forced to handle an outbreak during a flight out of Israel, a location that also boasts one of the most impressive visual feats ever on the big screen with what seems like hundreds of thousands of zombies piling up against the city's wall, threatening to overrun those inside.

And while World War Z ends rather satisfyingly (albeit neatly, mostly due to the film's PG-13 rating), the film's middle section could have used a little trimming as Forster's momentum wanes a bit during a bloated second act. Thankfully, things get right back on track once the story begins to build towards an actual conclusion that begins to tie up a few loose ends and provide the characters with a plausible solution to the zombie outbreak. The finale also provides one of probably a handful of sequences in WWZ that actually feels horror-esque which was a nice note to end the film on.

It's true that there may not necessarily be anything revolutionary going in World War Z in regards to the film's zombie subject matter but that's not to say the film isn't hugely entertaining either because it is; it's just that WWZ isn't a horror movie at all which means genre fans should definitely go into the movie with their expectations in check. Pitt makes for a compelling onscreen presence as usual and Forster definitely delivers some truly wondrous moments of cinematic spectacle in WWZ that make for a movie that's worth experiencing on the big screen but for me, it would have been nice to see a story that mirrored the novel more in terms of its character development (sort of like how Steven Soderbergh handled the interweaving storylines in his viral outbreak film Contagion) and played up the viciousness of the zombies just a little bit more than WWZ does.

'WORLD WAR Z' MOVIE REVIEW STARRING BRAD PITT
June 9, 2013, 8:00 pm Joanna Holcombe

Holy moly that was intense
If you didn’t walk into the cinema with some form of nerve settling aid -- I chose wine -- you’re almost certainly going to need one when you walk out. Or at least I did. But then, I’m not normally into zombie flicks, so I guess you could say this was a great if not rather stressful experience. Either way, ‘World War Z’ is pretty epic.

I’m going to make a big call here and say that this is possibly one of Brad Pitt’s best roles to date (despite the fact this is a 'my shirt stays on' type of film). He plays Gerry Lane, a former UN employee who retired to spend more time with his family (who he so clearly loves and adores).

At the onset of a zombie pandemic, Lane, his wife (played by 'The Killing's' Mireille Enos) and two daughters manage to narrowly flee the virus sweeping the globe. Deposited thankfully onto a Navy vessel in safe waters in the middle of the ocean, Lane is set the task of going back out into the infected world and investigating what started the pandemic and where.

It’s a global film, taking you from areas affected by zombie virus, sweeping from the US to North Korea, over into Israel and then up into Wales in the UK. It's also a suspenseful thrill ride that keeps ratcheting the rollercoaster ride higher and higher until you think you can’t take anymore near misses and then ‘click’, it goes another step further again.

'World War Z' is a modern film, reflective of the nature of our times and the very real health threats we face (SARS anyone?), our global borders and the fact that if something like this were to happen (and zombie virus aside its rapid transmission is entirely possible from a viral perspective), no one would stand a chance.

The terrifying speed of infection makes it borderline the horror film genre; to know you don’t stand a chance at survival is heartbreaking and nausea-inducing.

And perhaps this is one of the great tactics the film employs. It makes very real the threat of a viral invasion, be it zombies or another health threat, and makes you question your own safety and possible responses in times of crisis. (I know I was on a packed bus heading to the city the following morning thinking if there were a zombie on the bus none of us other passengers would survive.)

Despite the action-packed thrill ride of a whole bunch of narrow escapes from the literal clutches of zombies, this is also a family film at heart.

Gerry Lane does what does to protect his family -- going back out into the infected world is not a choice he makes lightly.

The love for his family that Pitt brings to the role makes me think that Angelina Jolie is one very lucky lady. There’s no acting there. There’s a family man whose family is at risk, for whom his loved ones are his vulnerability and his strength. They are his guiding light, and almost his downfall (watch out for the bike riding on the tarmac scene -- it's definitely one of the most intense). There’s also a real protectionist streak there, which I can only imagine Pitt brings from real life as a father to the six children he shares with fiance Angelina.

There’s also the point of casting. Aside from Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos (although even I had to look up who she was), this film takes on a cast of relative unknowns. While one might think that this is a risky ploy, it’s actually genius. The film is based entirely around the zombie-human and human-human interactions. The female Israeli soldier, played by Daniella Kertesz, steals the show, as does Enos, who plays Pitt's onscreen wife, Karin Lane. The fear, the vulnerability, the love are all real from each and every cast member. It was casting based on the strength of the actors and not on their star power. And that is a real win for this film.

While the plot of the film is relatively strong (although I would like to know how Brad Pitt escapes a plane crash as relatively unharmed as he did), it does leave wide open the possibility of a sequel. A prequel would be a strong possibility, as it would tie nicely into Pitt's character's search for the finding the point of viral inception.

All in all, as a zombie flick, this film has got it – action sequences, suspense, a certain level of gore. As a drama, this film has got it too – love, fear, anxiety, hope. Tied together it actually works really well. And I mean really well.

So well in fact that if you have to exit the building after the screening via the fire exit because the elevator is broken (just like I did), then you’ll be forgiven for feeling that you just may have walked into a scene from ‘World War Z’ and that a zombie siege is about to occur.

Now where’s my drink?