World War Z Creator Max Brooks Doesn't Expect to Be Involved With Film Sequel

With a second World War Z movie greenlit at Paramount, one of last year's most surprising hit [...]

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With a second World War Z movie greenlit at Paramount, one of last year's most surprising hit films is set to become the first true franchise headlined by star Brad Pitt. Of course, part of the reason it was such a surprise to see it succeed was that its target audience were initially skeptical of a film that took much of what made Max Brooks's best-selling novel -- "an oral history of the zombie war" -- and transformed it into a fairly typical action film. Brooks himself seemed somewhat ambivalent about the adaptation in his recent Reddit AMA interview, not particularly voicing any regrets over the way it came together but acknowledging that it's hardly the same property as his book. He also admitted that he doesn't know what he could bring to the table if asked to contribute to the film franchise.

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"Yes, there will be another World War Z movie sequel. I'm not sure if I'll be involved though," Brooks told fans yesterday. "After all, they created such a different world from my book, I'm not sure how much I can contribute." That's not to say he holds any kind of ill will over the production, though; when a fan asked him to assess how the movie ended up going so far afield of his text, he was thoughtful and a little puzzled, but seemingly not overly frustrated. "I wish I had a succinct, witty answer for the long, complex process that was 'World War Z: The Movie,'" Brooks wrote. "I can tell you that I didn't have much involvement in the making of that movie. I didn't even know what they were doing until I finally saw the movie. Basically, I took a risk letting Hollywood try to adapt my book. It's a risk I don't regret. As Captain Kirk once said 'Risk is our business.' Ironically, the fact that it was SO different my book was exactly what allowed me to emotionally divorce myself from the final product. I didn't have to watch my characters be mutilated or my story be perverted. As I've said many times, they didn't ruin my book, they ignored it. The silver lining was that I had could just sit back, breathe easy, and enjoy this fun, exciting '28 Days Later on crack' movie that just happened to have the same title as my book. As to your next question, do I wish that a different team would come in and give it another try? Honestly, when it comes to Hollywood, I try really... really hard to manage my expectations." Brooks was appearing on Reddit in support of his upcoming graphic novel The Harlem Hellfighters, which will be released on April 1.

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