As production on World War Z continues, so does the barrage of set photos attempting to uncover what director Marc Forster and star Brad Pitt are up to with the adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling book. Reuters has collected a bunch of set photos which show Pitt and his on-screen wife Mireille Enos trying to save their children on the streets of Philadelphia, which is actually a dressed up version of Glasgow, Scotland. Brooks was on hand to watch the scene and described what he saw to The Daily Record.
I was on set watching a scene where Brad Pitt is running with his family, and a hundred extras running with him, and behind us was a crowd of about 500 people just watching. The assistant director said how great it would be if only we had the money to hire all the people in behind us.
But what is everyone running from, you ask? Where are the zombies? Funny, you should ask, because Metro has the answer in a photo of one extra dressed as a zombie.
The Daily Record also provided a photo of the same zombie guy in a crowd.
Brooks also revealed that he had seen the zombies up close.
I also had lunch with the zombies and they're great. They look very much like what my impression would be of new zombies who had not really begun to rot, kind of like phase one zombies. They have a zombie school, where they are teaching extras how to act like zombies, and from talking to people on set they have really put a lot of research into everything. It was incredible to see it for myself and I'm still amazed they are making a movie of the book.
Brooks says he recognizes the difficulties in turning the book into a movie.
There's no reason anybody should have optioned this for a movie, it does everything wrong. It doesn't have a main character, the storyline is told from a hundred different points of view, it would be prohibitively expensive filming in all these different countries. You couldn't pay me to turn it into a film. All I know is they have their work cut out for them. It is the equivalent of climbing Ben Nevis on your knees. I'm not involved so I just want to be able to enjoy watching the movie when it comes out. At least I know they did at least as much research into things as I did for the book.
Brooks had some kind words to say about the city of Glasgow to Herald Scotland, and how well it is going to translate into Philadelphia.
I grew up in Hollywood and I’ve never seen a city — any city — be this enthusiastic about a movie. It’s probably the perfect storm — zombies have never been more popular, I don’t think Glasgow gets a lot of film production so it’s new and exciting and different. And, of course, it’s Brad Pitt.
I got a chance to look at some digital renderings of how they are going to put in skyscrapers and bridges and things like that and it’s Philadelphia. It’s unbelievable. These pictures could have been shot in Philadelphia that morning.
World War Z opens December 21, 2012.
