It’s Z End of the World… Cool!

Filming has just commenced on World War Z – The zombie-apocalypse adaptation of Max Brooks’ New York Times bestseller. The Daily Mail have released several on-set images from the shoot in Malta, which doubles as the Israeli border for a pivotal scene in the 2012 thriller.

Brooks is the son of cartoon vocal legend Mel and will be played by Brad Pitt (at least, a caricature) – traveling the world ten years after a zombie outbreak leaves it baron and unrecognisable, collecting stories and anecdotes along the way for what will eventually become his oral history, World War Z.

Sitting in the director’s chair is Bond graduate Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace), following on from the soon to-be-released Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler as biker-turned-preacher Sam Childers; an automatic weapon toting, saviour of Sudanese orphans (go figure).

World War Z, published in 2006 as a follow up to Brooks’ more humorous take on the genre The Zombie Survival Guide, is expected to have a stylistic flare akin to Children of Men – not played for laughs. The social commentary evident throughout strikes at the nerve of current geopolitical scenarios, especially those in the Middle East (where a majority of the story takes place). This is the obvious impetus for Pitts’ involvement in what could be a game changing picture for the horror genre. Just as District 9 opened doors for straight-faced low budget, high altitude science fiction – don’t be surprised to see World War Z chase a similar goal.

Forster has proved he can pull-off the serious with the tense (kitchen sequence at the opera in Quantum was outstanding). Back in ’08 we talked to him on the eve of Quantum‘s release to hear his approach to action sequences. At the time, having never done an action film before, he describes what is the method to the madness that is a thorn in the side of many directors.