Paramount faced a long, difficult road to adapt Max Brooks‘ book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.  It will be hard for a quality film to emerge from the endless rewrites and extensive reshoots (not to mention crazy run-ins with the law), but when Brad Pitt stars is in a zombie action movie, you have our attention.  The trailer for World War Z premieres on Thursday, and ET released a sneak preview of the footage.  The quick clip gets across the message that World War Z is B-I-G.  There are hordes—heck, literal piles at points—of zombies that attack in such great mass that they seem to overwhelm even our most powerful military weaponry.  If nothing else, I think we can all get behind a film that shows us large-scale zombie carnage on some level.

Anthony Mackie, Matthew Fox, Mireille Enos, and James Badge Dale co-star in the adaptation directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace).  World War Z opens on June 21, 2013.  Watch the trailer preview after the jump. [Update: We added the first teaser poster after the jump.]

One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was Peter Webber’s (Girl with a Pearl Earring) historical drama Emperor. The film takes place during the days following the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II and stars Tommy Lee Jones as General Douglas MacArthur, the de facto ruler of Japan as Supreme Commander of the occupying forces.  Matthew Fox plays a leading Japanese expert on the staff of MacArthur who is tasked with deciding whether or not Emperor Hirohito should be tried as a war criminal.  Fox’s mission becomes more complicated as he searches for a school teacher (Eriko Hatsune) who first drew him to Japan years before the war.  For more on the film, here’s a clip and some images.

Shortly before the world premiere, I sat down with Matthew Fox for an exclusive interview.  We talked about why he wanted to do Emperor, how the finished film compares to the original script, how he prepares for a role, if he prefers a few takes or a lot, and more.  In addition, we also talked about Speed Racer (a film I love), his physical transformation for Alex Cross, World War Z, the reshoots, Lost, would he ever do a comic book movie, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

One of my favorite movies of 2012 is director/co-writer Drew Goddard and producer/co-writer Joss Whedon‘s The Cabin in the Woods.  In fact, it’s also one of the best “horror” movies I’ve ever seen.  Without spoiling anything, let’s just say the film turns “horror” on its head, and I loved every second of it.  Make every effort to see this film!

Shortly after winning the Filmmakers Showcase Award at this year’s Saturn Awards, I was able to speak with Goddard backstage.  We talked about the success of Cabin in the Woods, whether it has led to a lot more meetings, his love of Daredevil (specifically Frank Miller‘s run), if he’s interested in writing a superhero property, and he reveals that he’s currently writing his next screenplay.  In addition, with Goddard supposedly re-writing the end of the Brad Pitt-fronted zombie pic World War Z, I asked how he got involved in the project and what exactly he’s been working on for the production.  Hit the jump for more.

In the long line of complications accompanying the adaptation of the Max Brooks’ novel, World War Z, yet another writer has come on to hash out the script.  Damon Lindelof was previously reported to be working on the ending of the troubled picture starring Brad Pitt, but it’s now being reported that his Lost co-writer, Drew Goddard, actually did the majority of the writing.  Lindelof apparently dreamed up the possible ending of the film but ran out of time to do the actual scripting.  That chore fell to Goddard, who recently co-wrote Cabin in the Woods with Joss Whedon and also scripted the Robopocalypse adaptation for Steven Spielberg. Hit the jump for more on the fate of World War Z.

Paramount almost didn’t make a PG-13 blockbuster adaptation of Max Brooks‘ zombie novel World War Z, and that would have probably been for the best.  The project, which was envisioned as the first part of a potential trilogy, would have been dead if the movie didn’t get a co-financier, but the studio eventually found partners in producer Graham King‘s GK Films and David Ellison‘s Skydance Productions.  Now they’re all paying the price as the production has spun wildly out of control, soared to more than a $170 million budget, requires five weeks of complex reshoots (others have put the number at 7-8 weeks), and brought in Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof to do re-writes on a picture that won’t be able to get back in front of cameras until September.

So how did production on World War Z go so horribly wrong?  Hit the jump for more.

Writers are brought on to perform rewrites on projects all the time, but it’s not every day that a scribe is hired to rewrite a film’s script after the film has already been shot.  Such is the case with director Marc Forster’s (Quantum of Solace) zombie apocalypse pic World War Z.  The film is based on Max Brooks’ novel of the same name and stars Brad Pitt as a United Nations employee “who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.”  Production took place last year in various European locales, with Paramount even considering a potential trilogy based off of the dailies they were seeing.

Back in March, it was announced that the film was vacating its December 2012 release date for the summer date of June 21^st, 2013.  The move didn’t turn many heads, as most assumed that Paramount thought the zombie pic would do better business in the heart of the summer rather than in the midst of the crowded holiday season of 2012.  Heads did turn, however, when rumblings began that the film was set to undergo some massive 6-7 week reshoots later this year.  Hit the jump for more.

Word of a sequel to Tony Scott’s Top Gun started bubbling up a few years ago.  At the time, most believed Tom Cruise would only be returning for a small role and that the film would center on a new young group of pilots.  Movement on the sequel began to pick up in the ensuing months, and as recently as February we learned that Peter Craig (The Town) was working on a script for the sequel that would feature Cruise in a starring role and would see Scott return as director.

Paramount President Adam Goodman recently sat down for an extended conversation with THR and he provided updates on a slew of upcoming projects including Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, World War Z, One Shot, another entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and the aforementioned Top Gun sequel.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

The AMC drama series The Killing, returning for its second season on April 1^st, ties together three distinct stories around a single murder – the detectives assigned to the case, the victim’s grieving family, and the suspects. While Season 1 was all about questions and red herrings, Season 2 promises to start uncovering the answers while delving into and exploring the notion that everyone has past secrets that are now coming back to haunt them. And, the resolution of who killed Rosie Larson (Katie Findlay) will be answered at the conclusion of this season.

At a press day for the show, co-stars Mireille Enos (who plays homicide detective Sarah Linden) and Joel Kinnaman (who plays Linden’s partner, Stephen Holder) talked about their surprise over the fan reaction for the Season 1 finale, how the marketing of the show mismanaged expectations for viewers, that the stakes will get more and more intense in Season 2, how neither of them knows the identity of the killer yet (they’ve shot 11 of 13 episodes so far this season), and how all of the relationship dynamics will play out. Enos also talked about how much fun she had playing Brad Pitt’s wife in World War Z and working with the incredible ensemble cast in Gangster Squad, while Kinnaman talked about what he’s looking forward to with taking on the lead role in the RoboCop reboot, which starts shooting in August. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Some big movies with some big stars have had their release dates shuffled around. Here they are at a glance:

• Tom Cruise’s One Shot has moved up from February 8th, 2013 to December 21st, 2012.
• Brad Pitt’s World War Z has been pushed back until June 21st, 2013.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will open on Christmas Day, December 25th, 2013.

Hit the jump for more on each of these movies.

With director Joe Carnahan’s (Narc, Smokin’ Aces, and The A-Team) awesome survival-action flick The Grey opening this weekend, I recently got the chance to talk with the cast.  Starring Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and Joe Anderson, The Grey is about a group of oilmen who have crash landed in the hunting zone of a rogue pack of wolves in the Alaskan tundra.  If you’re a fan of the cast, Carnahan, or just well made movies, The Grey will not disappoint.

During my interview with Dale and Grillo we talked about how they got cast in The Grey, how much changed from when they got the script to getting on set, karaoke, and future projects like World War Z.  Hit the jump to watch.

Assuming the world is still around on December 21^st of this year, you may find me in the theater watching World War Z, the Paramount Pictures thriller starring Brad Pitt as a United Nations employee racing to stop a zombie pandemic. Loosely based on the novel by Max Brooks, World War Z was initially thought to be a one-shot adaptation, but it looks as if Paramount has other ideas. In an L.A. Times article about Pitt’s career, the actor discussed his work on the most expensive zombie movie in Hollywood. Director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) and the studio both view World War Z as a potential franchise for Pitt, eyeing a trilogy that blends the realism of the Jason Bourne franchise with the undead terror of The Walking Dead. Hit the jump for more.

Paramount sent out a press release today about their plans for 2012, and to the surprise of no one, the studio plans to release Paranormal Activity 4 this year.  No details about the sequel have been revealed nor do we know who will direct, write, star, or how many afternoons it will take to shoot.  The franchise has been ridiculously successful for the studio, and the most recent film grossed $202 million worldwide off a reported $5 million budget.  The people have spoken and the people like night vision ghosts.  Here’s the quote from the press release:

In 2012, Paramount’s release slate highlights include “World War Z,” a zombie thriller starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster , “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” the next installment in the global franchise starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Channing Tatum , a new chapter in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, and “The Dictator,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Larry Charles , the team behind “Borat.”

No release date has been announced for Paranormal Activity 4, but since the last two movies were released in late October, we can safely expect to see the movie in the same time frame.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

Now here’s something that doesn’t happen every day: a SWAT team raided the Budapest set of Marc Forster’s big-budget zombie pic World War Z earlier today and seized a number of weapons that were being used in the film. Police confiscated 85 fully-functional weapons (read: not prop guns) from a warehouse that was being used by the production. Most of the weapons were of the automatic, military-style assault variety which is a very big no-no to transport internationally without authorization. Hit the jump for the full story, including star Brad Pitt’s reaction.

We have a few quick casting stories to report this afternoon.  First up, Deadline reports that great character actor David Morse has joined Marc Forster’s World War Z.  Morse “will play a prisoner living in an abandoned jail.”  Question: if the jail is abandoned, and the movie takes place in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, why is he still a prisoner?  Is he taking shelter in the prison?  We already know that the movie is going to differ greatly from the book so who knows what Forster and co. are up to.  The film stars Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Anthony Mackie, and Bryan Cranston.  Morse co-stars on HBO’s Treme and will next be seen in the Disney family flick The Odd Life of Timothy Greene.

Hit the jump for casting news on Siren and Arthur Newman, Golf Pro.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to speak with director Marc Forster about Machine Gun Preacher.   The movie is based on the real-life story of Sam Childers (played by Gerard Butler), a former drug-dealer who turned his life around and now devotes his time to saving kidnapped and orphaned children in Sudan.  The film also stars Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon.  It’s a hell of a story and one that I’m glad got told.  You can watch some clips here.

During the interview, Forster talked about why he decided to make Machine Gun Preacher, being the producer and director, the casting process, editing, karoke and what’s the last video game he played.  In addition, with Forster currently shooting World War Z with Brad Pitt, he talked about what drew him to that project and changing the book to make the movie.  Hit the jump to watch.