World War Z News - Possible SPOILERS

[Jan]

It's kind of like watching a slow motion car wreck. Now they want to make it a trilogy?!?

http://www.iamrogue.com/news/movie-n...a-trilogy.html

Geoff Boucher explains, "Forster and Paramount Pictures each view 'World War Z' as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of, say, Damon's Jason Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC's 'The Walking Dead.'"

It resembles the book less all the time.

Jan

[Jan]

As feared:

Originally Posted by Fans of J. Michael Straczynski

My draft of the script, which was based faithfully on Max's book, was rewritten to the extent that virtually nothing remains of what I wrote. Consequently, I no longer have a credit on the film.

This really sucks.

Jan

[JoeD80]

yep his credit is gone from imdb. Every bit of news I hear about this film makes me want to see it less and less.

[Joe Nazzaro]

Best to think about it as an alternate universe World War Z, that has nothing to do with the book. I know a fair number of people that worked on the film and frankly, I've yet to hear anything that makes me feel all that excited about it. It's the usual, 'Too many cooks in the kitchen' school of film production, where nobody can make a decision and huge chunks of money are burned through as a result. On this kind of film, you really need a clear creative vision and a few tough decision-makers at the top and I'm not sure 'Z' had any of them.

[Marsden]

Originally Posted by JoeD80

yep his credit is gone from imdb. Every bit of news I hear about this film makes me want to see it less and less.

This is a little off topic, but does JMS still get paid for his work, or does that depend on his contract? I was just wondering, I didn't think someone could be removed unless they wanted to be.

[Jan]

JMS would have gotten paid for the script and any revisions that he did. I'm pretty sure that what this will effect is any royalties.

As for removing somebody's name, the script would have been submitted to the Writer's Guild for arbitration to determine what, if any credits were to appear. An example of how it can be beneficial is that JMS was given story credit on the THOR movie. In this case it would seem that, as he noted, nothing that he wrote would have remained. I can't recall that I've ever seen this sort of thing - usually it's a matter of throwing out somebody's previous effort and starting over rather than rewriting somebody's script into oblivion.

Jan

[Jan]

Nothing like re-writing a script *after* the movie's been shot, huh? Yesterday the news was that WWZ was going back for 7-10 weeks of re-shoots. Today it's that Damon Lindeloff is going to rewrite the script...again.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...ad-pitt-335241

This the script that's already been so extensively rewritten that JMS no longer even has a writing credit on it.

Just as well I already knew I wouldn't be going to see it but, geez, what a cluster-f*ck!

Jan

[Jonas]

I'm a fan of Lindelof, but this one will be tough. The people in charge simply don't want to make a WWZ movie.

[Jan]

Okay...this may be a no-no. In fact I'm pretty sure it is. Actually, I *know* it is. But I found this online and I know that *many* copies of the JMS drafts of the WWZ scripts have been floating around quite freely for a few years...so for those who want to see what his adaptation would have been, check out:

http://www.zombiefiend.com/forum/top...war-z-original

for two drafts of the script. Given that even before Lindeloff was brought in there was nothing left of JMS' drafts left (as evidenced by his writing credit being removed), this will be the only chance to see these probably.

Jan

[Dan Dassow]

Originally Posted by Jonas

I'm a fan of Lindeloff, but this one will be tough. The people in charge simply don't want to make a WWZ movie.

This sounds a lot like what happened with "I, Robot". The film version bears little resemblence to the Isaac Asimov series and completely destroyed the charater Susan Calvin. Susan Calvin was one of my fictional heros growing up.

The Lindeloff draft of the WWZ screenplay probably will remove the film from the source material even more than the current script.

[Jan]

Somebody asked JMS last night on Twitter if any part of his WWZ script would make it onscreen.

Originally Posted by J. Michael Straczynski

Other than the names of the characters (and the characters themselves), no, not a syllable.

Jan

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I have just finished reading the book and absolutely loved it. Going to have a read of JMS' draft scripts now to see what he made of it, and what impressed Max Brooks.

From what I have read recently, I can't help feeling that what they are doing is turning the movie into more of a traditional zombie affair, set during the actual war itself. Granted, there is plenty of stuff in the book to draw on in terms of setting it apart from others of the genre, particularly the world-wide scope of it, rather than seeing it only from the perspective of one relatively small group of people (although I confess I haven't seen a lot of zombie movies as they don't really float my boat).

If that is what they are doing, that would be a real shame, and a missed opportunity.

Incidentally, has Brooks made any comment about his feelings on where they are taking the movie, given that he was previously so complimentary about JMS' take on the book?

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

As someone who hated what Prometheus became, I'm really not happy that Lindelof has been injected into this project.

He seems to be the kiss of death for anything remotely interesting.

[Ubik]

Same thoughts here. Prometheus had promise, but I felt it got confused about 3/4ths of the way through the film. When the proverbial shit hit the fan, the plot just unraveled and so did any sense of mystery or tension that the film had built.

Don't even get me started on the alien foetus extraction scene that was very conveniently never mentioned again and seemingly forgotten by the collective cast members.

Anyhow, just grabbed the original JMS scripts form the link above, will be very curious to read then, having not seen too much of JMS rececent script work.

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

It seems as if everything has gone quiet about this project again.

What a weird thing to happen to such a high profile adaption with such high profile talent attached.