Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' $200 Million Production Nightmare Exposed

[and/or www.mantra.com/jai]

Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' $200 Million Production Nightmare Exposed

By Greg Gilman
The Wrap
Yahoo! Movies
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Damon Lindelof and Paramount have spilled the rotten
tomatoes on Brad Pitt's "World War Z."

Incomplete script, an incoherent ending, massive re-
shoots, millions of dollars in budget overages, and even
a Hungarian SWAT team raid are apparently just a few of
the issues plaguing Pitt's troubled production, according
to Vanity Fair's June cover story.

According to "Lost" writer Lindelof, who rewrote the
film's third act and spoke with VF contributor Laura M.
Holson, the SWAT team was the least of the producing
team's worries. After screening a first cut of Marc
Forster's geopolitical zombie thriller, Lindelof said the
ending was abrupt and incoherent.

And�Paramount executives Marc Evans, president of
production,�and Adam Goodman, �president of the Paramount
Film Group,�agreed.�

"It was, like, wow. The ending of our movie doesn't
work," Evans recalled after watching a director's cut of
the blockbuster hopeful. "I believed in that moment we
needed to reshoot the movie."

So Lindelof gave them two options -- or "roads," rather -
- to fix the disasterous adaptation of Max Brooks' novel
of the same name.

"I said to them, 'There are two roads to go down here.'
Is there material that can be written to make that stuff
work better? To have it make sense? To have it have
emotional stakes? And plot logic and all that? And Road
Two, which I think is the long-shot road, is that
everything changes after Brad leaves Israel."

Continues at:

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/brad-pitts-world-war-z-200-million-production-203112362.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

[nick]

On May 2, 12:32 am, use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr.

So World War Z is such a fiasco the people who made it are already
trying to cover their own asses before it's even released, even if it
means giving it such terrible publicity it guarantees that audiences
are going to go into it expecting a disaster?

[Obveeus]

"nick" <leftbehindb...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On May 2, 12:32 am, use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr.
>Jai Maharaj) wrote:
>> Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' $200 Million Production Nightmare Exposed
>>
>> By Greg Gilman
>> The Wrap
>> Yahoo! Movies
>> Tuesday, April 30, 2013
>>
>

>> "It was, like, wow. The ending of our movie doesn't
>> work," Evans recalled after watching a director's cut of
>> the blockbuster hopeful. "I believed in that moment we
>> needed to reshoot the movie."
>>
>So World War Z is such a fiasco the people who made it are already
>trying to cover their own asses before it's even released, even if it
>means giving it such terrible publicity it guarantees that audiences
>are going to go into it expecting a disaster?

They will be happy if people go into the theater expecting a disaster as
that will likely mean people coming out saying 'that movie was better than I
thought'...which is almost like good word of mouth. The bigger risk, of
course, is that this pre-release de-expectation campaign will convince
people not to go into the theater in the first place.

[nick]

On May 2, 8:01 am, "Obveeus" <Obve...@aol.com> wrote:

The average filmgoer probably saw the trailer and thought, oh, a
zombie film with Brad Pitt, that looks alright, completely oblivious
to all the production rumors surrounding the film. But now this
Vanity Fair article is getting such mainstream coverage, everyone's
going to know that World War Z was a "troubled production" and might
possibly be awful.

I came out of Heaven's Gate saying "that movie was better than I
expected" and now people think Heaven's Gate is a masterpiece, so
maybe World War Z's short term prospects are dire but in the long run
it's reputation will grow and grow.

[trotsky]

"Waterworld" was supposed to be trash, too, and that turned out to be a
pretty good movie. "Ishtar" I've only managed to see about 15 minutes
of, so I can't comment.



--
Never post something on the internet unless you have a point of
reference. You will look like a moron otherwise.

[nick]

One thing I don't understand about film production though is why do so
many films go into production without a finished, coherent script?
It's the cheapest part of the production process so you might as well
at least get that part right. You'd think with something like World
War Z they could have locked some ultra-bright science fiction fan
screenwriter in a room with the script for a few days and he could
have figured something out, heading off whole "incomplete script,
incoherent ending" problem.

[moviePig]

But the "cultured" demo for HEAVEN'S GATE doesn't much intersect the
Pitt/zombie groupies for WWZ. In the modern era of Netflic and
OnDemand, there just may be such a thing as bad publicity, at least as
far as a movie's box-office is concerned. (Also, wtf is a *writer*
doing giving negative interviews? Does he imagine he needs to protect
his image with the public rather than with, say, the investors who
hire him?)

--

- - - - - - - -
YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com

[trotsky]

You've seen "The Player", right? They start off with a treatment that
gets everybody enticed, and by the time they're finished massaging the
concept it's unrecognizable. I'm still pissed about "Prometheus".

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

In article <Vcadncu3uqm__R_M...@mchsi.com>,

trotsky <gms...@email.com> wrote:
>On 5/2/13 7:32 AM, nick wrote:
>> On May 2, 8:26 am, trotsky <gmsi...@email.com> wrote:
>
>>> "Waterworld" was supposed to be trash, too, and that turned out to be a
>>> pretty good movie. "Ishtar" I've only managed to see about 15 minutes
>>> of, so I can't comment.
>>>
>> One thing I don't understand about film production though is why do so
>> many films go into production without a finished, coherent script?
>> It's the cheapest part of the production process so you might as well
>> at least get that part right. You'd think with something like World
>> War Z they could have locked some ultra-bright science fiction fan
>> screenwriter in a room with the script for a few days and he could
>> have figured something out, heading off whole "incomplete script,
>> incoherent ending" problem.
>
>
>You've seen "The Player", right? They start off with a treatment that
>gets everybody enticed, and by the time they're finished massaging the
>concept it's unrecognizable. I'm still pissed about "Prometheus".
>

I can't find it online, but Mark Evanier did a very funny column a
few years back about a script he had written that was set in a Las
Vegas casino, and how it went through every step of the pitch process
completely unread by anybody pitching it up until it was time to
get the big name actor on board...
--
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

[BTR1701]

In article
<e00e52c7-7ed4-4942...@y12g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,

Exactly what I was thinking. Why didn't they know the ending was
incoherent from the start? Why, only after millions were spent filming
it, did it suddenly occur to everyone that it made no sense?

[Invid Fan]

In article
<e00e52c7-7ed4-4942...@y12g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
nick <leftbehindb...@gmail.com> wrote:

> One thing I don't understand about film production though is why do so
> many films go into production without a finished, coherent script?
> It's the cheapest part of the production process so you might as well
> at least get that part right.

Scripts take time. When studios set a release date the day a book's
rights are bought, the clock starts ticking.

> You'd think with something like World
> War Z they could have locked some ultra-bright science fiction fan
> screenwriter in a room with the script for a few days and he could
> have figured something out, heading off whole "incomplete script,
> incoherent ending" problem.

Well, that's part of the problem, studios thinking you can do a script
in a few days. The format now is shoot something, anything, then toss
underpaid, overworked CGI artists at it to get something releasable by
the target date. The days of taking two years to develop a script, plan
a reasonable production and post production time, is long over,
although it should come back after a crash.

--
Chris Mack "If we show any weakness, the monsters will get cocky!"
'Invid Fan' - 'Yokai Monsters Along With Ghosts'

[Invid Fan]

In article
<a16053d7-cd29-483e...@i3g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>,

moviePig <pwal...@moviepig.com> wrote:

> But the "cultured" demo for HEAVEN'S GATE doesn't much intersect the
> Pitt/zombie groupies for WWZ. In the modern era of Netflic and
> OnDemand, there just may be such a thing as bad publicity, at least as
> far as a movie's box-office is concerned. (Also, wtf is a *writer*
> doing giving negative interviews? Does he imagine he needs to protect
> his image with the public rather than with, say, the investors who
> hire him?)

He wasn't talking to the public, but to those investors. His name is on
the script. He will get blamed for how it looks on film, even if the
horrible changes happened after his work was done. His script for
Prometheus, for example, is better than what was in the finished film.
The DVD has a commentary from both him and the first script writer,
pointing out all the stuff that's not their fault.

[nick]

When it became evident that Showgirls was going to be a monumental
failure, Joe Eszterhas turned on the project, trashing it in the
press. A pissed off Paul Verhoeven said that if the ship was going
down, they should all go down together. Some of the behavior re:
World War Z really is rather unbecoming. Follow Verhoeven's lead--go
down with the fucking ship.

[Russell Watson]

This year's "John Carter"?

[RichA]

World Government alert!!

-The film follow's Pitt's character, a United Nations bureaucrat,
tasked with finding a way to stop a zombie pandemic from decimating
all of humanity.

[moviePig]

On May 2, 12:59 pm, Invid Fan <in...@loclanet.com> wrote:
> In article
> <a16053d7-cd29-483e-a303-4be936a33...@i3g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>,

>
> moviePig <pwall...@moviepig.com> wrote:
> > But the "cultured" demo for HEAVEN'S GATE doesn't much intersect the
> > Pitt/zombie groupies for WWZ.  In the modern era of Netflic and
> > OnDemand, there just may be such a thing as bad publicity, at least as
> > far as a movie's box-office is concerned.  (Also, wtf is a *writer*
> > doing giving negative interviews?  Does he imagine he needs to protect
> > his image with the public rather than with, say, the investors who
> > hire him?)
>
> He wasn't talking to the public, but to those investors. His name is on
> the script. He will get blamed for how it looks on film, even if the
> horrible changes happened after his work was done. His script for
> Prometheus, for example, is better than what was in the finished film.
> The DVD has a commentary from both him and the first script writer,
> pointing out all the stuff that's not their fault.

Seems like investors are gonna see a prima donna who can't wait his
turn to sing. I'm pretty sure that if I'd put up megabucks, I'd
expect the principals I'd hired would stfu at least until the body's
cold.

[RichA]

Are there any really big-budget movies today that outright fail, if
they have either well-known stars or plots behind them?

[Obveeus]

"RichA" <rande...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Are there any really big-budget movies today that outright fail, if
>they have either well-known stars or plots behind them?

JOHN CARTER and GREEN LANTERN seem like good answers to your question, but I
suppose it depends on what you mean by 'outright fail'.

[nick]

On May 2, 8:17 pm, "Obveeus" <Obve...@aol.com> wrote:

Yeah, I don't see Green Lantern ever developing a cult audience.

[trotsky]

On 5/2/13 12:09 PM, nick wrote:

> When it became evident that Showgirls was going to be a monumental
> failure, Joe Eszterhas turned on the project, trashing it in the
> press. A pissed off Paul Verhoeven said that if the ship was going
> down, they should all go down together. Some of the behavior re:
> World War Z really is rather unbecoming. Follow Verhoeven's lead--go
> down with the fucking ship.

Yes, but wasn't "fucking ship" far more appropos for Showgirls?

[unklbob]

On May 2, 9:41 am, t...@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:
> In article <Vcadncu3uqm__R_MnZ2dnUVZ_rKdn...@mchsi.com>,

This podcast (WTF with Marc Maron) has an episode with Thomas Lennon
where Lennon goes into detail about the scriptwriting process--very
funny.

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_105_-_thomas_lennon