The big-budget adaptation of Max Brooks‘s novel World War Z might flatline if Paramount cannot find a co-financier, Vulture reports.
Brad Pitt – who is producing and set to star – first optioned the book by Zombie Survival Guide author (and son of Mel) Brooks several years ago. The film was originally slated for a 2010 release when Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster jumped aboard.
According to insiders, the studio is negotiating a last-minute deal to court past Paramount co-financier David Ellison (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Top Gun II, Star Blazers) along with an as-yet-unknown investor to help shoulder the $150 million budget.
When pressed for details, Paramount Film Group president Adam Goodman had this to say: “We’re really committed to making a big, kick-ass giant movie with Marc Forster and Brad Pitt.” Goodman would not comment when asked whether or not the studio would go ahead with the project without a financial partner.
Now that Universal has pulled the plug on Guillermo Del Toro‘s At The Mountains of Madness – and with Disney having already killed one planned remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with McG at the helm – the big studios are getting much more antsy about the ballooning costs of these tentpole films. It’s quite likely that Paramount would take World War Z down like the zombies in it’s story.
Max Brooks’ novel is a terrific read, but difficult to adapt – it is essentially a collection of first-person accounts of a world-wide zombie war ten years after the fact. There is no main character, just a narrator who is never introduced and has no voice of his own. Since there are no details about what the narrative of the adaptation will be, it’s hard to say what kind of shape the script will take.
Have you read World War Z? Are you looking forward to this project?