The buzz on Brad Pitt‘s World War Z is interesting as the actor has attended special early screenings of the film in New York and New Jersey following a lot of negative buzz swirling around the film’s production. The budget has reportedly climbed to anywhere from $170-250 million depending on who you believe and it has also already received a Vanity Fair cover story even though it still doesn’t hit theaters until June 21.
Production woes, rumors of on set clashes between Pitt and director Marc Forster, extensive reshoots and the excising of a 12-minute climactic battle have contributed to all the negative and speculative press.
Truth is, reshoots began in October 2012, two months before the film was originally expected to be released with about 60 pages of new script material written by Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) and Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) with Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) on set to revise the script as needed. From sequences that included 150 extras, the new finale reportedly featured no more than 20 people on set and Paramount is doing what they can to turn the tide on expectations.
In the Vanity Fair piece mentioned above, Forster sounds optimistic about his film, saying:
“For me, it’s like, I had a good time on this film… I didn’t feel like it was a big drama. I feel like, yes, the ending didn’t work. Yes, we all thought it was going to work. Yes, we decided it’s not the right ending. Yes, we decided to change it and spend more money. Yes, it never happened to me before on any of my other movies. But I think this movie is more original and bigger and more special than I have ever done before.”
In all likelihood World War Z won’t be as bad as all the press that surrounds it, but like similar films before it that suffered from bad press and pre-judgment, John Carter being the most recent example, World War Z stands a very strong chance of being judged unfairly.
Take for example articles such as this one and this one, which clearly don’t know what they’re talking about and create a false impression of the film before it has had a chance to breathe in the marketplace. Then again, in the age of the Internet, irresponsible journalism is rewarded more than level-headed thinking, it’s up to us to sort it out or, at the very least, put it all into perspective.
Those two articles talk of the budget climbing to over $400 million, which would make it one of the most expensive films in history. Truth is, the budget very well could be that number, but only if you are attempting to calculate in not only production costs, but marketing as well, which is rarely done in today’s world and if it is, it’s clearly written.
Yes, marketing on World War Z on a global scale will likely end up somewhere around $100-150 million, which could potentially push a $250 million film to $400 million, but to look at it in such simple terms as those two articles do and then say the potential domestic haul of $150 million means a $250 million overall loss is an example of ignorance personified. After all, do you take into account worldwide marketing costs and then not consider worldwide receipts?
In the Vanity Fair piece it talks about how the third act in Forster’s original two hour cut of the film simply didn’t work. When they brought in Lindelof to discuss potential changes he was only shown a 72-minute cut, with aspects of the original cut removed so as not to influence his opinion.
I’d love to see both the original two hour and subsequent 72-minute cut released on a special edition Blu-ray and have the studio embrace the creative/business process that went into delivering the final product we’ll see at the end of June. Production stories like this only come about every so often and when they do they are just too good to ignore.
At the moment I won’t be seeing World War Z until June 18, only three days before its release, but I’ve been told there is a chance Forster may come to town for interviews, which would likely mean an earlier screening, which I sincerely hope takes place. My interest has been piqued more than ever and wouldn’t it be great if the film actually worked?
That said, here’s the first released clip from the film and you can get more information on it right here.
