'World War Z' May Have Financing, June Start

Last week, it looked as thoughWorld War Z, an adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie novel with Brad Pitt attached to star, might be dead without proper financing at Paramount Pictures. Vulturereported the film’s imminent demise without a producing partnership to share the $125 million risk.

ButDeadlinehas learned Skydance Productions may be riding to the rescue and is in“heavy” talks with the studio and star/producer Pitt. Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) is lined up to direct, but no word on whether those rumors of paring the violence down to a PG-13 are true.

Brooks, son of director Mel Brooks, wrote a well-liked novel, but the screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski is one of the best I’ve ever read. The film, a chronicle of a post-apocalyptic world where zombies have overrun most of the world, centers on Gerry (Pitt), a researcher for the United Nations’ post-Zombie War commission instructed to investigate and interview survivors to learn from the widespread outbreak.

WhileWorld War Zmay wind up one in a horde of shuffling undead movies and TV shows, the movie’s broad scale should set it apart from the zombie romances (Warm Bodiesand CW’s“Awakening”), the re-imagined period piece (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and everything else (Jonah Hill’sKitchen Sink). Specifically, the story is weighted in social significance and commentary, such as a discussion with a flight attendant about zombies overtaking the plane (terrorism), a border guard talks of illegal undead being smuggled into the country, rampant political corruption and ineptitude, and the chaosof aimless refugees and widespread looting (a Katrina allegory that may have attracted Pitt in the first place).

The script has been reportedly rewritten by Matt Carnahan, but if Skydance agrees to share the costs, production could be underway by this June. Founded in 2006, David Ellison’s Skydance contributed to the budgets of True Grit and Mission: Impossible– Ghost Protocol.

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