World War Z (film)

World War Z
A man standing on a rooftop, his back to the viewer, and a gun strapped over his shoulder. He is looking out over a devastated city. A helicopter flies overhead nearby.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMarc Forster
Screenplay by
Story by
Based onWorld War Z
by Max Brooks
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by
Music byMarco Beltrami
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • June 2, 2013 (2013-06-02) (Empire Cinema)
  • June 21, 2013 (2013-06-21) (United States)
Running time
116 minutes[5]
CountryUnited States[6][7]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$190–269 million[8][9][10]
Box office$540 million[11]

World War Z is a 2013 American action horror film directed by Marc Forster, with a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, and Damon Lindelof, from a story by Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski, inspired by the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks. It stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who travels the world seeking a solution for a sudden zombie apocalypse,[12] along with ensemble supporting cast including Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.

Pitt's Plan B Entertainment secured the film rights to Brooks' novel in 2007, and Straczynski was approached to write and Forster was approached to direct. In 2009, Carnahan was hired to rewrite the script. With a planned December 2012 release and a projected budget of $125 million, filming began in July 2011 in Malta, before moving to Glasgow in August and Budapest in October. The production suffered some setbacks, and, in June 2012, the release date was pushed back, and the crew returned to Budapest for seven weeks of additional shooting. Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite the third act, but did not have time to finish the script, and Drew Goddard was hired to finish the rewrite. The reshoots took place between September and October 2012, ballooning the budget to a reported $190 million, although some publications have listed it as high as $269 million.

World War Z premiered in London on June 2, 2013, and was chosen to open the 35th Moscow International Film Festival. It premiered in New York and Los Angeles on June 14, and was theatrically released elsewhere in the United States on June 21. Reviews were mostly positive, with praise for Pitt's performance and for the film as a revival of the zombie genre, but criticism of what some felt was an anti-climax and a lack of faithfulness to the source material. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $540 million against a production budget of $190 million, making it the highest-grossing zombie film of all time. A sequel was announced shortly after the film's release, but was cancelled in February 2019, reportedly due to budget issues.[13]

  1. ^ "Brad Pitt's Zombie Nightmare: Inside the Troubled 'World War Z' Production". The Hollywood Reporter. June 12, 2012. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  2. ^ "Someone Important Fought to Keep Their Name off of World War Z, Here's Why". February 4, 2016. Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  3. ^ "Newton Thomas Sigel". Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers. Archived from the original on July 11, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  4. ^ Turner, Sheldon (July 25, 2014). "World War Z - Ben Seresin". Sheldon J. Turner. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  5. ^ "WORLD WAR Z (15)". British Board of Film Classification. June 5, 2013. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  6. ^ "World War Z (2013)". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  7. ^ "World War Z (2013)". European Audiovisual Observatory. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith (2013-6-23) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grover & Michaud (2013-6-23) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference DeadlineProfit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference BOM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "WORLD WAR Z - British Board of Film Classification". www.bbfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  13. ^ Sharf, Zack (February 6, 2019). "David Fincher's 'World War Z' Sequel Shuts Down at Paramount Over Reported Budget Issues". IndieWire. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.


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