Writer Max Brooks visits the set of “World War Z”
Screenwriter and novelist Max Brooks visited the movie set in Glasgow (standing in for Philadelphia!) of the film adaptation of his book “World War Z. Here are some of his reactions to the zombie movie production starring Brad Pitt:
“It’s incredible. Brad Pitt really conquered the city. I’ve never seen this much enthusiasm for a film and everyone is really excited to be working with all these people cheering and watching.
“I was on set watching a scene where Brad Pitt is running with his family, and a hundred extras running with him, and behind us was a crowd of about 500 people just watching. The assistant director said how great it would be if only we had the money to hire all the people in behind us.
“I also had lunch with the zombies and they’re great. They look very much like what my impression would be of new zombies who had not really begun to rot, kind of like phase one zombies.
“They have a zombie school, where they are teaching extras how to act like zombies, and from talking to people on set they have really put a lot of research into everything.
“It was incredible to see it for myself and I’m still amazed they are making a movie of the book.
“I heard Brad Pitt had optioned the rights and I thought, ‘That’s cool’ but it probably wouldn’t ever get made because most optioned projects never do, so it was the biggest shock in the world to me when my wife showed me pictures on her computer of Brad Pitt in Malta filming World War Z.
“I’m still waiting to wake up from this one.”
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“There’s no reason anybody should have optioned this for a movie, it does everything wrong,” Max said. “It doesn’t have a main character, the storyline is told from a hundred different points of view, it would be prohibitively expensive filming in all these different countries.
“You couldn’t pay me to turn it into a film. All I know is they have their work cut out for them. It is the equivalent of climbing Ben Nevis on your knees.
“I’m not involved so I just want to be able to enjoy watching the movie when it comes out. At least I know they did at least as much research into things as I did for the book.
“Brad loves Glasgow and he told me how great it was to make a film in a place that is not used to it.”
My favorite line: “I also had lunch with the zombies and they’re great.” Ha!
There’s that William Goldman line: “The most exciting day of your life is your first day on a movie set. The most boring day is the second.” I’m guessing a zombie movie starring Brad Pitt in Glasgow just might contradict him.
For more of the Daily Record article, go here.