I really, really liked the book World War Z. Zombies are a little over-played these days, but the book was a fantastic read and hit the proper tone and pacing of a good zombie story so well that I read it two or three times before the week was out. That was back in 2008. A year or so ago they announced that a movie was in the works. And now, it seems just about finished and slated for a Summer release. The trailer looks pretty good, but we’ll have to wait for the full film to see if Hollywood has ruined the story like they have so many other great books before. Keep your fingers crossed.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. The book really was great. I’ve read it a couple times, and recommended it to others several more.

    Forget everything you know about it.

    Then, maybe, just maybe, the movie might be pretty ok. But it’s not the book. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the book. The book has no main characters. It has no family. It has no “your government needs you to get us out of this mess, Mr. Awesome Brad Pitt Character.” The movie is The Walking Dead. The movie is Resident Evil. The movie is 28 Days Later.

    The movie is not World War Z.

    • Have you read John O’Brien’s “A New World” series? For a new writer, his stuff is really damn good. Very highly recommended.

    • The movie looks neat, though I am very butthurt that this holds the “world war z” name. This movie needs to be a series, not a singular movie and having a major celebrity in it just kills the credibility.

      They can certainly do what was done to The Walking Dead with Max Brooks’ unique flair. but i guess its easier to do major films 🙁

      • I agree with Matt in Florida about this one. It doesn’t look to be too bad of a movie per se but the move to make it a world war Z makes it much harder to dignify.

        With that said I don’t mind brad Pitt as an actor so I’ll be much excited to seethe movie.

    • I read WWZ and I really enjoyed it’s style of short stories written in a journalistic fashion. While I can see why they didn’t make a movie with that same short story/episodic style and chose to focus mostly on Brad Pitt’s character and family, my main concern is the zombies look like they’ve received the “I am Legend” treatment of being CGI, stupid quick, and not fitting the description of Max Brooks’ zombies.

      It would definitely be a better cable series to hold the WWZ moniker.

    • lol, i had the same though, what the hell is this story about? it does look cool, but i think the wave attack thing is a little much, this is showing far too much intelligence for reanimated necrotic flesh. climbing up a wall, pushing a bus over?

  2. They had to reshoot over 50% of it, last I heard, because the result of the first try was an unsalvageable mess. Hopefully this means that Brad Pitt (his company is producing WWZ) is keeping their standards high, and their insistence on a re-shoot will result in a great movie. Very hard to tell at this point.

    Hell, it couldn’t be any worse than (gag) Battleship. My youngest talked me into renting that off Amazon and I still want my $4 back.

  3. I’m interested, if for nothing else, the book was awesome. Good book to movie translations are rare.

    Anybody else a fan of ‘THE ROAD’? I thought that movie did a good job of capturing the essence of the book.

    • Man that was a double whammy of downer. The “Road” book and movie. The lucky ones might have been the ones that died first.

    • I disagree. Loved the book, and liked the movie. I think the movie could stand alone just fine; however if you read the book before or after the movie, it will invoke many more emotions. I did like that in the movie it was easier to tell who the f’ was talking. 😉

      Personally, I think one of the best post-apoc movies ever done so far has been Book of Eli. Seems like all the ones based of novels just turn out to be bland; however “The Road” is probably the best of the ones based off novels.

    • yeah but the audiobook of World War Z is abridged. Like half the book is gone.

      For an entertaining Zombie series try Day by Day Armaggeddon by J. L. Bourne

      • +1 yes! i was just about to post the same thing, now those are books that should be turned into a movie.

  5. CGI Zombie hordes? That just feels….lazy to me. Not that it hasn’t been done before, but they seemed to take great pains in that trailer not to actually let you see them, so that makes me think it’s been done better, too.
    Fantastic book for anybody who hasn’t read it, though- I doubt there’s many in this crowd who haven’t yet.

    • and WTF is with the swarming??? WWZ were standard slow moving zombies not that angry fireant nest swarming mass.

  6. The book was incredible, It will be a shame if they totally cast aside the Studs Terkel format of the novel. That layout, along with the incredibly deep and nuanced characters that we were only able to get brief glimpses into, made the book so much more poignant than just a “zombie book”.

  8. Zombies are a little over-played these days

    A “little”?! Very subtle, very nice (unlike zombies)!

  9. The zombie hordes look less like zombies and more like some sort of raging torrent of water.

    1. Make big budget action movie
    2. Slap on World War Z even though the movie is just loosely based on it
    3. ?????
    4. Profit

    • 3 add big name actor that some people will watch without question and hype the movie to the masses

      Hollywood in my mind ruins good stories because they make more money by making brainless bubblegum for the brain action flicks because the studios are all afraid to make real films that have depth and thought.

      Thank goodness for Redbox that way I do not feel so bad when it is a total crap movie and only paid $1 to watch it.

  10. It looks like the movie is filmed from ‘day zero’ perspective where the book was a post-mortem account of the war….but you all know that. I’m OK with the outbreak perspective. However, I really wanted to see what the battle of Yonkers looks like which could potentially be betrayed in the movie. I think it’s unfortunate that they went with the modern cheetah-on-crack-zombies rather than the slow walkers the book portrays that is more in keeping with Walking Dead. I’ll probably see it either way.

  11. I’ve not been into the Zombie craze. If you want a more realistic scenario, try Patriots: Surving the Comming Collapse. Great book with lots of really good advice for surviving an economic collapse.

  13. JL Bourne’s Day by Day books are my favorite Zombie fiction series.
    BTW, does anyone know if Max Brooks is a “gun guy?” He did appear on Sons of Guns and seemed pretty into firearms…

    • He kind of is a gun guy for the most part.
      It’s just he sometimes has some blatant errors in his books, like how in the Zombie Survival Guide he went on a rant about how the AR-15 was jam-o-matic.

    • UN world police…..ugh exactly, buuuuut i still am gonna see it, i just hope they include the part about the downed usaf female pilot with the suppressor, its been a bit since i read the book, anyone know that character’s name?

  15. Eh, this looks like a fail to me. World War Z shouldn’t look like The Avengers, but this trailer sure does. I’m still crossing my fingers for Zombieland 2.

  16. Fast zombies kind of breaks the premise of how humans eventually manged to contain the outbreak (slow steady rates of aimed fire) and makes the slower, methodical battle plan to retake the world a lot less workable. I feel bummed.

    • I don’t think slow steady rates of aimed fire even exists in Hollywood. I mean, the Zombies aren’t holding weapons that can be shot out of their hands, The hordes prevent the single aimed instant death headshot.

      As a big fan of zombie movies, I’ll be sure to watch this–in 2016 when it comes out on Netflix.

  18. I don’t know anything about the books. I won’t be seeing this movie. The preview seems about as dehumanizing as anything I’ve seen in a while, since ‘The Road’.

    I liked the 28 Days movies, the truth is that they didn’t even come across to me as “Zombie” movies when I saw them. I liked “I AM LEGEND”, I watch ‘The Walking Dead’, but find it bearable mostly because of the after show ‘The Talking Dead’ hosted by a comedian that helps cut the darkness of the show, and I may not even be able to sustain that as it sounds like they’re going to get darker and darker. I can barely think about the last episode.

    And, simply, I don’t need to see it. I don’t need that in my life. Yea, it’s just a movie. So is ‘The Exorcist’ (I can’t watch that movie either). So is ‘Precious’, which is an excellent movie (completely different demographic than this site), but I certainly won’t watch it again. And so is ‘The Road’, an excellent movie by an acclaimed author which posits probably one of the most awful questions I can think of, and since it’s not germane to life today, I choose to not even explore it — it’s simply not that interesting.

    So, I won’t be seeing this. I’m sure there’s more interesting things coming out next summer. If not we always have Hobbit Pt 2.

    • Geeze Louise, Will, get a grip guy. It’s just a stupid movie. And besides when the Zombie apocalypse does happen, you do want to know what to expect? Right?

  19. Looks like a fantastic documentary. Did Hornady sponsor it? I hear their Zombie line of ammo is really useful for situations like this.

    I am surprised though at how fast Zombies actually can move, I always thought they were a lot slower and less agile.

    Oh, well, good safety tip.

  20. i’m sorry, but those are infected, not zombies. zombies are slow, can’t climb, and the only way to kill them is to destroy the brain.

    if they weren’t trying to sell this as a zombie movie it would be much easier to appreciate. oh well, i’ll watch it anyway, but i can promise you i’ll flinch every time they say “zombie” in the movie.

  23. Hmwwwww!!! Fast Z. Going to chage my training. Been training for head shots. Thinking now about sporting clays with an M4.
    When younger I once shot a Monkey off the back of a running Unicorn, with a Marlin 60 at 300 yards. So I figure I’m up for the challenge.
    Guy22

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