Already headed for seven weeks of reshoots, World War Z is still nowhere near ready for post-production. In fact, the part of the movie that wouldn’t even allow the movie to exist — the screenplay — is getting another pass by Damon Lindelof. Rewrites are not strange. Rewrites after a movie has been shot are definitely troubling. What in the world is so wrong with this movie that they’re bringing in the Lost (and Prometheus) writer in at this stage of the game?
After already pushing the planned release date from this coming December to next June, Paramount ordered seven seeks of reshoots for the zombie movie starring Brad Pitt and adapted from the book of the same name by Max Brooks. Apparently, the reshoots (described as “significant”) concern the last third of the movie (the third act, in screenplay-speak), which is what Lindelof is said to be taking on.
So, clearly, this movie has a ton of serious problems if they’re bringing director Marc Forster and Brad Pitt back to Budapest for nearly two months. Also starring Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, and Anthony Mackie, it could have something to do with the subject matter which could be seen as polarizing to some; the book certainly contains political and sociological messages, which could turn off some potential moviegoers. But this has to be either some seriously controversial content or they’re not successfully getting their point of view across. True, it’s always sensitive territory when you bring politics to the dinner table, and since zombies are such a huge hit with many, many kinds of people, perhaps Paramount doesn’t want to offend a portion of people who just don’t want to pay for a politically-slanted movie, whether they agree with it or not.
But this must have been really bad to order this kind of reshoot plus a rewrite of the third act. Reshoots are supposed to start in September or October, and maybe it’ll be finished in time for its release date on June 21, 2013. Maybe.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
