Anthony Mackie, who recently appeared in The Adjustment Bureau, is said to have been offered a part in Marc Forster’s World War Z. Variety has the scoop, also suggesting that the actor could potentially join Gangster Squad (in addition to or instead of Z).
Based on the novel by Max Brooks, World War Z is about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies. Brooks — the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft — wrote a detailed tome in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world 10 years after the crisis to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map.
Brad Pitt is already attached to star in the Paramount Pictures film as the U.N. researcher and Mireille Enos is in talks to play his wife. Mackie’s potential role is currently unknown, but the film is looking to go into production immediately for a summer 2012 release.
Gangster Squad, meanwhile, is in development at Warner Bros. and will be directed by Zombieland helmer Ruben Fleischer. It adapts a Los Angeles Times articles titled “Tales From the Gangster Squad.” The piece, written by Paul Lieberman, explores the true story of a band of secret “off the record” police task force who went after Meyer Harris “Mickey” Cohen, a high-profile gangster who was a member of the “Jewish Mafia” in the 1940’s. The current cast includes Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin.
Mackie is next set to appear in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
