Assuming the world is still around on December 21st 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.
JoBlo first brought it to our attention that Pitt’s post-apocalyptic zombie film might be turned into a franchise. Fans of the original source material may be upset at first to find that World War Z is being turned into an undead copy of Contagion, but there may yet be hope. Since the novel was originally an “oral history†set after the zombie pandemic had nearly wiped out humanity, perhaps the first film is being setup as a sort of prequel to the events in the book. No word yet on how far Paramount plans to stretch the source material or how much of it will be wholly original to the movie, but it seems promising that if World War Z is a box office success (and if Hell on Earth hasn’t arrived by then), we’ll have more zombie movies to look forward to.Keep up to date on all of our World War Z coverage here.The film also stars Anthony Mackie, Matthew Fox, Mireille Enos, and James Badge Dale. World War Z opens December 21st, 2012.