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Paramount Enlists More Screenwriting Reinforcements To End Costly WORLD WAR Z!
Beaks here...
This is some potential good news on Paramount's panicked rewrite of the WORLD WAR Z finale: while Damon Lindelof was brought in to "crack" the ending, Deadline is reporting that the actual writing chores were handed over to Drew Goddard, who dazzled us earlier this year with the excellent CABIN IN THE WOODS. So the Marc Forster-directed (loose) adaptation of Max Brooks's novel might finally be on the mend almost a year after the production wrapped principal photography!
Or not! There's also talk Paramount would like Christopher McQuarrie to punch up Goddard's ending, but he might not be available on acount of becoming Tom Cruise's new Robert Towne (they're both moving on to Doug Liman's ALL YOU NEED IS KILL). So then what? My modest proposal: stick with what Goddard gives you, 'cuz he's good. Brad Grey's proposal: I'm due for an George-Segal-at-the-end-of-CALIFORNIA-SPLIT run, so back off.
In any event, it's hard to argue that Paramount didn't know exactly what they wanted from a WORLD WAR Z movie when they greenlit it. I mean, pair this with the schedule-shuffling confidence behind G.I. JOE RETALIATION, and you've got a portrait of a studio that knows what it wants, fucks up what it wants, then bleeds out countless millions of dollars trying to end up with something semi-releasable. This is how you run a studio.
Readers Talkback
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....into the ground...
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From a library. For free. Because I'm not paying for it. This has disaster written all o'er it.
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FUCKING ART-TARDS... JUST USE THE FUCKING BOOK! THAT'S ALL WE WANTED! OR ADAPT IT TO HBO!!! Talk about shooting themselves in the foot!
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Because that sounds like what this movie needs.
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What the fuck? Oh and fuck this piece of shit PG-13 cashgrab. It deserves all the misery it gets.
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I'm with judge briggs, all they had to do was cull the book's vingettes down to two hours worth of screen time, add a framing device, and shoot it. This ain't rocket surgery.
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unneccessary shit in there, alluding to what made everyone turn into zombies, which will be answered in the sequel. i mean, prequel. then after that we get a reboot with superfast zombies, for the kids. or maybe vampires.
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Now there's a movie that needs a home video release, pronto.
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July 11, 2012, 1:33 p.m. CST
So someone please explain Marc Forsters input in this is.....
by D o o d
he directed but the studio are clearly unhappy with it. So does that mean he totally fucked up the movie? what the hells going on..?
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the movie needs more Tatum.
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They had a good script when they started; I've known Joe Straczynski for years, and he did the script. Marc Forster wanted more action, or some ass clown at Paramount did. They went in and did patchy rewrites, now there's a problem in act 3 that started in act 1 because somebody didn't know what they were doing, and I can tell ya now, it wasn't Joe Straczynski!
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This has gone from bad to worse. Do they bring in Ratner to save the day?
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More like World War Zzzzzzzzzzzz Amirite?
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MOST people don't know all this crap like we do. Most people don't even know that movies are coming out until they see the trailer for them at the movie theater. Only people like us get worried about stuff like this. When the trailer begins...and it's about zombies...and it stars the biggest actor in the world...people will go see it. If it sucks, it won't do well. If it's good, it will. I quote Vic Vega. "Either he's alive or dead...or the cops got him...or they don't" Sorry, but I've never been big on production notes about upcoming projects, especially when I have no idea what's bs and what isn't. Judge the final product for what it is...if it ever comes out ;)
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July 11, 2012, 2:05 p.m. CST
Paramount is gonna do whatever they can to put this Major Disaster in their rear views
by Kyle DeMattio
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Fixed that for you.
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July 11, 2012, 2:15 p.m. CST
why didn't Disney bring in some help for the screenplay of John Carter?
by Titus05
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Remeber the moneypits of The Invasion and The Wolfman. Two films that were done, and then the studios decided to due extensive reshoots, and then when they were released, they flopped big time, and the flops were made worse by the fact that tons of money was spent on reshoots.
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The problem was it was a niche film that had a 250+ million dollar budget.
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The average person out there, who will make up the overwhelming bulk of audience that will race out to see this thing opening weekend at their local multiplex, don't give a shit about this stuff. Only film wonks like us do. He's right -- the general public only STARTS to care when they see an official trailer, at which point they either like it or hate it, and make a mental note to put it on their "see" list or "ignore" list. And if it stars someone like Brad Pitt (or some star that they like) all the better. Which means that, frankly, if the average person heard that Paramount was tossing gobs of money WORLD WAR Z in order to reshoot the ending, they would probably think "Good. I hope that means they're ADDING more explosions or action and having Pitt killing even MORE zombies! 'Cause THAT shit I wanna see!" On the other hand, speaking AS a film wonk, this stuff always does crack me up that studios get the ball rolling and only then...once the thing is well, well along...do they suddenly seem to snap out of some daze and say "Oh wait. This is gonna end HOW? Shit, where was I? Was I asleep or on drugs or something? We gotta change THAT." So as for WORLD WAR Z, you had a hit book to give you a detailed blueprint and yet, for some reason, these morons couldn't figure out how to end the movie. Then again, anyone here who has ever actually dealt with a studio... or gone in and actually pitched to these "creative development" heads or agents... can attest to the fact that an overwhelming number of these people seriously have NO clue as to what the fuck they're doing or talking about. Which is why I'm never surprised when a movie turns out to be incredibly average or downright shitty, and you're more amazed that it came out the other end ACTUALLY being okay.
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July 11, 2012, 2:31 p.m. CST
This project is looking like the Mena Suvari revisioning of Day of the Dead
by cock smoker
Sat in the can for a while, then direct to video. That movie was such a straming pile of shit. Nick Cannon gave me douche chills and Ving Rames was really slumming for a paycheck with that one. Might be interesting to see how Brad Pitt distances himself from this after it being a "passion project" for him the last few years.
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Tip to film studios: Complete movie script BEFORE wrapping principal photography. Just an idea you may want to try out.
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Well Moneyball turned out okay and that had a shakey production, so who knows. Of course that movie had it's problems (Soderberg leaving, script revisions) before cameras started rolling, not after, plus it cost a lot less to make.
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That is all.
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So says the doc at the beginning of the book, so says Paramount.
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July 11, 2012, 3:16 p.m. CST
Endings are the exact thing you want to keep Damon Lindelof away from
by atlatl
Have you seen LOST?
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July 11, 2012, 3:21 p.m. CST
They'll probably write a book someday about this movie's production woes.
by Mr. Pricklepants
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Sigh. And so will I.
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The book is written like a documentary. Ken Burns-ing the shit out of this one is the only way to go. Unfortunately, nobody would finance that.
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Arma II new zombie mod called DayZ. Its a unique and very realistic survival horror mod, stressing SURVIVAL!! You can be killed by friendly fire from other online players or the very smart AI zombies that track with smell and sound. You can also die from starvation and dehydration, shock, infections, and break bones. check out this video. You need to buy Arma II and its expansion pack, which on the software companies website they sell for $25 bundled, and the mod is a free download. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOB7YGgREFg
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You don't need a million screenwriters to put more into this. There should be enough talent on the production team to sort this out from the correct perspective.
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I don't think you can judge a film on it's production woes as so many great films had really tough shoots that went way over schedule and way over budget. To name a few: Jaws, Star Wars, and Blade Runner.
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What a fucking train wreck.
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...film the original script? I remember reading a review of the script on this site like 2 years ago saying they nailed it and this may be the first zombie movie ever to be nominated for an Oscar. I was really looking forward to this movie. Then about a year ago I found out they weren't using that script, Brad Pitt was now "trying to find a cure", and the zombies run. Now I'm not really looking forward to this movie at all. Why didn't they just stick with what they had?
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July 11, 2012, 4:43 p.m. CST
Right when they announced that the story was changed to "BRAD PITT SAVES THE WORLD"
by Rob
I knew we, as fans, were fucked. Everything that has happened since has reenforced my belief in this. The should have taken Straczynski's script and gone with that. Apparently there is not one actual scene from the book in the final product prior to reshoots.
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July 11, 2012, 5:19 p.m. CST
this whole mess sounds eerily similar to the troubled production of Alien³
by lv_426
Throw a bunch of different writers at the problem and pray that one of them can figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The major difference is that with Alien³ it seemed that they were still writing the script and tweaking the plot during principal photography. On WWZ it seems they had a script then completely changed their minds as to what the fucking plot should be, all of course after production. So now they are going to reshoot the ending and maybe other scenes? The real tragedy is that the JM Straczynski script was actually really good. As a fan of the book, I was surprised that someone was able to take the massive scale of WWZ and fit it into the mold of a two hour movie format and still keep a lot of the details and most importantly the overall themes and spirit of the book. And then they throw that out? Why did the producers of this film want WWZ in the first place then? Oh yeah, brand recognition and all that BS. That way they can blame anyone but themselves if the film is a failure.
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July 11, 2012, 6:03 p.m. CST
I love the irony of Damon Lindelof being brought in to write an ending...
by Stegman84
Gee, I wonder why that didn't work out? Ah, Hollywood, you are a clusterfuck of ineptitude wrapped in a blanket of unintelligible shit sometimes.
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Face palm.
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So we can see all the original stuff that got reshot or cut or whatever. Maybe they can have competing Excorcist movies like we got a few years ago. Which means WWZ will crash and burn. Sadly.
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July 11, 2012, 6:34 p.m. CST
Sounds like Paramount is quickly becoming the new Fox.
by thedarklinglord
And that's some seriously fucked up shit right there.
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and all the zombies around the world drop instantly.
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July 11, 2012, 7:37 p.m. CST
Great Goodard writing like the abundance of "Holy shit!" and "Oh my God!" that was 90% of Cloverfield dialogue?
by Tall_Boy6t6
I kid, I kid. I love Cabin the Woods & his Lost-penned episodes. But the Cloverfield writing is ... let's just go with "not a highlight."
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July 11, 2012, 7:46 p.m. CST
What's the big deal anyway? It's not as if STORY has mattered at all in recent movie-making.
by IronEagle74
As long as you make the movie 90% green screen cgi and slap a coat of 3-D on it, it'll make money.
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The movie is PG-13! A fucking zombie movie. Would you say, The Walking Dead has PG-13 violence? Shit, shouldve had Max Brooks write the screenplay. Hey, i know...Lindelof should write a sequel to "Adaptation", where he tries to write the ending to the WWZ script...
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July 11, 2012, 8:31 p.m. CST
It's odd that Brad Pitt is involved with such a shitty sounding project
by bigjeffrey
The guy's got Fincher, Soderbergh and The Coens on speed dial. Why would he be involved with a project that appears to be directionless, particularly his next project after the extremely well reviewed Moneyball? Surely his star and producer power would be enough to drag this one out of the sh*t? I don't really rate the guy as an actor but he certainly has great taste. This mess of a production would usually star someone like Ryan Reynolds or Chris Evans, Eric Bana even but Pitt? Hollywood Royalty? Having his project picked to pieces by the likes of Lindeloff? He can't have been the one that said "let's get the guy who has no clue how to tie up a movie in to tie up our movie."
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the best way to have adapted that book was to do it as a faux Ken Burns style documentary, with talking heads and "recreations" of what happened. That would've been cool and it would've been something different. But no, instead we get this watered down bullshit. whatever.
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Really?! I would think the problem would be assembling the rest of the book into a narrative that resembles a standard Hollywood feature film. The ending is the easy part, usually this is the big riddle in most Zombie projects; but here its spelled out in black & white. Maybe the guys at Paramount should try reading the source material for a change. Hell, I could write the ending for them. This book would have made a terrific spring board for a TV series that was like Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories and Outer Limits. Different stories every week set in this "world", but, with a progressing storyline. Hell, put it on when Walking Dead is on hiatus and you could rake in the money.
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You know, before TWD tv show.
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I had a feeling they'd fuck it up right from the start...it's just to big to pull off properly. In the meantime, someone ought to make this into a movie, or at least stage it: http://www.amazon.com/Hamlet-Z-ebook/dp/B006ZBGBR4 Course, they'd probably fuck that up too. I'm tired of books I like getting shit on. (The exception, at least in my opinion, being Lord of the Rings and, hopefully, the Hobbit.)
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Am I in some alternate Bizzaroverse or something? Lindelof can set things up with big ideas pretty well but can't write an ending to save his life. Heck, I'd take Stephen King's endings over Lindelof any day, and that is saying a lot.
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July 12, 2012, 2:05 a.m. CST
It'll be a shaky-cam mess with a crap ending and will make a fuckton of money. We'll shrug and move on.
by Fortunesfool
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July 12, 2012, 2:22 a.m. CST
The documentary will be called "Lost in LaMancBRAAAIIIINNNSSS!!!!"
by Arcadian Del Sol
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Wow, there are so many warning lights flashing about this production... holy shit.
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McQuarrie is a good choice.... JC Chandor might be an "out of the box" choice for his solid dialogue and structure.... Peter Straughan... Joe Penhall.
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July 12, 2012, 10:39 p.m. CST
there's nothing more entertaining than seeing something go bad
by chien_sale
That can be a Hell of a Good show!
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