It actually does seem quite good.  Not sure I’d say Oscar-worthy, but good, and it does capture the spirit of the book. There is a plot for the narrator-character, but it’s more about weaving in his own personal experience through the crisis (which was a lot more personal rather than “constant running from zombies”) in with his investigations on what happened in various parts of the world.

A shame they filmed THIS.

I should note that, having read the script…. TECHNICALLY, this COULD be that movie, with a few minor and some not-so-minor changes (like making the zombies super fast), and a lot of really, really deceptive editing to make the trailer seem like a completely DIFFERENT kind of movie (the “we need your help” and “I can’t leave my family” all referring to needing his help to “tell the story” in the aftermath, rather than part of the crisis, and most of the action scenes, save him and his family’s initial escape from the immediate crisis outbreak, being told to Pitt rather than him actually being there, and perhaps even using the device of Pitt standing in for whoever’s telling the story in the flashbacks, because he’s trying to make the story “personal”).

I hope so, because it could still be salvageable like that.

I hope so, but I don’t really have faith.

When a document gives you disconnected nonlinear narrative, make lemonade. Sweet, sweet PBS lemonade.

I guess if they’re using Max Brooks’ title, they’re gonna credit him. Unless there’s some arbitration going on, it’ll probably say:

Screenplay by Damon Lindelof & Matthew Michael Carnahan

Based on the novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Then again, there’s a case to be made for “Inspired by,” but I think the studio would rather avoid that if they can. I suspect Brooks could try to convince the WGA to arbitrate in that direction, if he cares enough.

completely nonsensical rewriting of all the lore and myth behind said undead.

Like Dracula?

I’m curious to see how they do the attribution. ‘Based on’ isn’t accurate. ‘Inspired by’? ‘Infected by’?

Quite frankly, *that* kind of utterly mindless aggression is a *million* times more frightening than just a bunch of shambling corpses trying to gnaw on your bum. And I *love* how there really isn’t any way to tell, at times, whether a horde of running figures is a swarm of zombies or just a swarm of desperate people trying to escape. That blurring of the line between all-too-human panic and monstrous undead hunger may very well the motif that really lifts this film above the others.

Yeah, Cloud Atlas hasn’t made its money back, but the earning potential between an R-rated Oscar bait drama and (likely PG-13) zombie drama would be pretty vast, especially since the book is a sacred cow among the key demo. 

It’s too bad, because the first draft commissioned by the studios leaked out years back and everybody who wrote about it called it (paraphrasing) “potentially the first Oscar-nominee zombie movie.” Instead we got a Brad Pitt action vehicle. Sad.