Brad Pitt On The Outs With World War Z Director Marc Forster
Trouble in zombie paradise! Hate to turn this into a gossip post but the news is definitely disturbing. Vulture reports that Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster aren’t speaking as a result of the happenings behind filming and production of World War Z. Frustrated by the direction the film is taking and in the midst of multiple reshoots, it looks like Brad has grown weary of the constant monkey wrenches being thrown into the World War Z schedule.
Things got so bad that when Forster had notes on a scene for Pitt, they had to be relayed through an intermediary — and vice versa. We’re told that this awkward function was and is being largely fulfilled by a rotating trio of studio production president Marc Evans, Paramount film group head Adam Goodman, and Dede Gardner, a former executive at the studio who now runs Pitt’s company. And all this as the production crests $170 million as it heads into its costly reshoots, with an ending that is still in flux. (A representative for Creative Artists Agency, which represents both Pitt and Forster, declined to comment. Calls to Paramount were not returned by deadline.)
Foreals player? WTF is this, middle school? I’m not sure if this is a case of Pitt being a primadonna, or just being very passionate about his craft and his concept of the movie that he bought the rights to. From the outside looking in, it appears that the two are being petty but no one really knows the whole story. Yet.
In June of this year Paramount brought in Lost executive producer and Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof to come in and take a look at the footage as well as the script and suggest minor changes to make the finished product more polished. Lindelof then brought in the likes of Lost writer Drew Goddard to help. Judging by the writing of Prometheus, dude needs all of the help he can get. Even now, rewrites will take the next few months to clean up the mess that is currently World War Z and that’s a damn shame. However, after waiting 5+ years after hearing of the potential for a movie, I can wait another year to get a quality finished product.
Another wrinkle in this clusterf*ck of a movie is that Pitt has the final say on all rewrites. So if he doesn’t like what’s happening to his brainchild, he can order more rewrites. And more rewrites. And more rewrites. On some “If I can’t have it my way, it won’t see the light of day,” type of antics. WWZ has the potential to eclipse what Zombieland and Dawn of The Dead have done to a stagnant niche so let us pray that everyone involved will soon be like minded in their focus to create one of the best zombie movies the world has ever seen.
