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Original poster

to be annoyed that World War Z looks to be NOTHING like the book?

35 replies

Heartbrokenmum73 · 11/06/2013 21:48

Saw a trailer for it last week and it looks like they've just made a Brad Pitt zombie film which is very, VERY loosely based on what I thought was a great and unique book.

I don't generally 'do' zombie stuff, but the book was on offer on Kindle and once I started it I couldn't put it down. Essentially, the book is a series of interviews (one interviewer travelling the world) with different people affected by a worldwide zombie infestation and covers how it began, how it built up, how the world reacted and how things are recovering after.

The film shows Brad Pitt being all action hero and leaving his family to go and aid in the fight against zombies. Then his family are in peril, he's trying to get back to them, etc.

Unless the trailer is woefully mis-selling it the film seems to have very little to do with the source material. Really gets my goat when they do this.

OP posts:
verytellytubby · 11/06/2013 22:05

I went to the premiere (boasting I know Grin) and the film is NOTHING like the book.

ScrambledSmegs · 11/06/2013 22:31

I know. It looks like utter pants Sad The zombies are the wrong kind of zombies too.

I hate it when hollywood fuck up great novels. However the format of that novel is pretty much unfilmable, so I can understand why they've done what they have.

Bakingnovice · 11/06/2013 23:00

Very is the movie watchable? Any good? Am supposed to be watching it soon but won't bother if its crap.

paulapantsdown · 11/06/2013 23:03

YANBU

I am so fed up about this. First Tom Cruise bloody ruining Reacher and now this!

I think the book as it stood would have actually been a great film. This looks like a bloody travesty.

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 11/06/2013 23:04

It would have made a better TV series than film, different viewpoint each week etc...
Ah well, can only hope its watchable

VivaLeBeaver · 11/06/2013 23:08

I love the book but can see why they've changed it for the film. Films need a led character to identify with.....the "lead" in the book was a narrator. Each chapter was different people so it wouldn't really work in a film.

Saying that this is the film that they've spent a fortune totally reshooting a large part of the film after initial test audiences didn't like the ending. It was meant to have been released last summer but they reshot instead.

Doesn't bode we'll.

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 11/06/2013 23:12

My dad could have been in it, a lot of it was apparently filmed where he was working. I think he'd make a good zombie Grin

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 12/06/2013 00:05

Great book, based on Hackett et al's World War 3: A Future History.

HBO might have managed it, but Hollywood can't do this stuff in depth.

LOTR extended boxset is TWELVE HOURS and Jackson still dumped half the book.

AlpacaPicnic · 12/06/2013 02:22

I have to go and see the film as two of my friends are extras in it! I thought it looked ok, but nothing like the book. They could have filmed it as an ensemble film, maybe have BP as a recurring character to tie it all together...

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 12/06/2013 08:02

Ahh, but as a recurring character rather than lead, would he have done it?

Actually, I think I read somewhere that it was made by his production company...?

catgirl1976 · 12/06/2013 08:17

YANBU

I loved the book but the film appears to just have taken the title, a zombie theme and nothing else :(

Shame as done properly I bet it would have been great

webwiz · 12/06/2013 08:27

DS met Max Brooks at a book signing and he wouldn't sign any film posters because he isn't happy with it.

ScarletLady02 · 12/06/2013 08:31

I've read World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide and was really looking forward to this film, but yes it doesn't look anything like the book.

However, as a total zombie fan-girl, the idea of a zombie film with Brad Pitt in it (who doesn't generally do shit films) is enough to make me want to watch it. They should have just called it something else. Inglorious Undead Basterds or something??

Trills · 12/06/2013 08:37

I, Robot was nothing like the story either.

You couldn't make a Hollywood blockbuster out of the story as it is. You could make a great faux-documentary though.

Original poster
Heartbrokenmum73 · 12/06/2013 14:36

Well, if we're all agreed on this, next question is:

Why the fuck did they bother making it?

Why not just make 'their' zombie film and call it something else? Why give fans of the book the idea that we're getting a film of the book? What's the point? And it says a lot to me when the original author dislikes it.

OP posts:
izziewizzie · 12/06/2013 14:45

Funnily enough, I've just read the book, and a day later the film started advertising.

I did say to Dp that I couldn't see how Brad Pitt was the lead, as it isn't actually one persons story, and I've seen "brad and small girl" in some of these clips, which means it will now be "brad fights zombies, and save small pretty girl, plus the world" type film

Am in two minds whether to see it. Am a bugger if I have read a book before I see the film, I can't enjoy it because its just too inconsistent for me.

Never once reading it did I imagine Brad Pitt. Not once Angry

babyru · 12/06/2013 16:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Heartbrokenmum73 · 12/06/2013 16:22

Yes, babyru, that was my impression too - totally at odds with the book. In the trailer they seem very speedy, whereas the book describes them as slow.

OP posts:
EldritchCleavage · 12/06/2013 16:23

See vanityfair.com for a story about the troubled genesis of the film. Sounds like a dog's dinner.

ScrambledSmegs · 12/06/2013 19:04

Yes. As I said, wrong kind of zombies. The modern, speedy shit mark II zombie, instead of the classic George A. Romero shambler.

I love a good zombie film. This looks like it won't be one and I am about it.

MrsWolowitz · 12/06/2013 19:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ScarletLady02 · 12/06/2013 19:10

Fast zombies are stupid....they make no logical sense....

Romero shamblers all the way!

I'll still watch it though...can't be as bad as Mutant Vampire Zombies From The Hood.

jamdonut · 12/06/2013 19:17

Crikey.Looks like I'm the only one who is actually looking forward to the film. I HAVEN'T read the book, so I have no pre conceived ideas of what it should be like.

Just because it has a had a troubled time in production doesn't been it won't be any good. I'm prepared to give it a chance.

Just because a book is based on a film,there is never any guarantee that it will "be like the book". I can think of very many films where this is the case.

Just because it doesn't have traditional zombies doesn't make it bad.

I thought the trailer looked amazing.

I've never seen a Brad Pitt film I didn't like.

Biggest plus....it has some of Muse's music in it! That's a good enough reason for seeing it if nothing else!

ScarletLady02 · 12/06/2013 19:19

That was my earlier point jamdonut - it has Brad Pitt (who VERY rarely does bad films) and it has zombies....it ticks at least two boxes right there.

I'm reserving judgement...like I'm reserving judgement on Evil Dead (remake).

AlistairSim · 12/06/2013 19:19

I loved the book but this looks so disappointing!
Love a zombie though, any zombie, so will most likely go and see it and then moan to dp for a few days.