I have distinctly mixed feelings about this latest news on the World War Z movie front:

World War Z, Brad Pitt’s movie about a global undead apocalypse, may be dying (or is it re-dying?) unless Paramount can find a co-financier. The film currently has a price tag of more than $125 million, and the studio is fervently searching for a partner to share the risk. Our sources tell us that if they can’t find one, it’s likely that Paramount will pull the plug on the adaptation of the Max Brooks book, which was to be directed by Quantum of Solace’s Marc Forster and star Pitt, who would also produce.

…

But, to be fair, Del Toro was intent on an R rating, while Goodman says that Paramount signed a deal with Forster assuring them of a PG-13 cut.

So let me get this straight. Not only is the studio determined to bring a big budget adaptation of Max Brooks’ infamous Anti-Zombie magnum opus to the screen, but they insist it sanitize the Anti-Zombie massacres and Undead-o-cide so that parents can more easily bring their kids to see it?

And all that’s stopping this juggernaut of despicable hate and crass marketing is a shortage of funds?

Wow. That’s all I can say; wow. To think that Hollywood has become this debased and mercenary, it’s really far worse than I’d imagined. They’re all for marketing violence and pathological hatred, but please, make sure it gets a family friendly rating? What the heck is wrong with these people?

So now I’m in a position of, what, rooting for one type of crass mercenary behavior to beat out another? The lesser of two evils being reticent investors? Not to mention the fact that this puts the ZRC in an odd position vis a vis on-screen Anti-Zombie violence; we’d rather the studio find something positive to make and skip World War Z altogether, but if it must be made, sanitizing the horrors is just an affront to all that’s decent. Pushing it at the tween market in addition would be reprehensible.

Yeesh.

Tags: Mainstream Media, Max Brooks is a Jerk, Movies

This entry was posted by John Sears on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.