World War Z

I got it the day it came out, very fun. But I think that it could even be a cool like mini TV show, not a full scale movie. But you should get this book and the Zombie Survival Guide.

whats this about? Zombies? but then again, i can just do an amazon search huh...

I just got the book. I'm gonna start reading it tomarrow though.

HBO would be a great place for this, but i think a bunch of stories about different people from all the different aparts of the world would be really cool. season opener should be the battle of yonker, then go back and start with the outbreak in china.

NPR had a strange interview with Max Brooks today. They actually set it up as an interview that takes place 10 years after an actual zombie war with callers calling in about their experiences during the battle.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=6104111

Can anybody find a cast list with the parts they played?

Some of the actors are pretty obvious, but others aren't so much.

Anyone interested in reviewing it for CC?

Hey - forgot this was released. Ordered it a few minutes ago (along with the How to Survive a Zombie Holocaust book).

The book is set up as though the Zombie War actually occurred in the not-so-distant past (see, for example, the inner jacket of the hardcover). In keeping with that, the adaption should be developed with Ken Burns' "Civil War" documentary as its template. They could have voiceovers reading letters from the frontline (I'm thinking about the account from the first successful battle in Hope, Arizona), photographs, survivor's accounts, etc. That would be a blast.

I just finished this and really dug it. However, I think the film version would have to rely heavily on home video, "You are There" footage, because what's the point of having a zombie movie without some intense zombie attacks.

I finished it yesterday and it is amazing. Brooks just brought up all sorts of details that you would never even think of.

Terrific, terrific book. My favorite read in quite some time.

And yeah, this needs to not be a movie. A BAND OF BROTHERS type miniseries would be appropriate. I want to see the Battle of Yonkers.

A Ken Burns- style documentary could easily incorporate home video footage and the like. I would especially like to see them incorporate the footage from the soldier's heads up displays during the Battle of Yonkers... I think the narrator of that account describes how command had to shut off the HUDS because other soldiers were freaking out at the images being broadcast into their helmets.

That being said, a "Band of Brothers" type of series-- especially with the first hand accounts bookending each episode-- could work quite well.

Loved the book -- my favorite part of Romero's Dead films and the Dawn remake was the news footage that really made you feel like this was a global event, and this book has that in spades.

And I totally agree about the miniseries approach. The segment about the downed female pilot would make one hell of an episode on its own.

The Chinese sub. I need to see that, on screen, TV, whatever. What an amazing story.

And the Russian Army chaplain.

Great Commentaries

*spoiler alert*

Brooks’ format really served to drive home his point that everyone, everywhere, from all walks of life, were touched by this invasion. Even more than the numbers, which were staggering when you took the time to think about them (I don’t have the book in front of me, I’m at work, but something like only 500,000 people were left in China?), were the voices of everyone from top military officials to housewives to feral humans. He tied all these tales together not necessarily with the common enemy of the zombie, but of the sheer instinct of humanity’s primal instinct to survive. People who would normally greet another on the street thought nothing of taking up a brutal weapon (eventually, the “Lobo”) and popping it into a skull with gnashing teeth and oozing, thick, black liquid. Primal versus primal, animal versus animal. All this time we were deluding ourselves we were civilized. Countries use this chance to break out into civil war, persecute each other, etc. In Canada, non-zombies each other to stay alive… Other opportunistic humans take advantage of fear to make money. I think Brooks is making pretty heavy social, economic, and political, and Hobbesian philosophical comments while entertaining the hell out of us with a crafty and clever zombie story. I enjoyed it to no end.

BTW there is a WW Z podcast where they feature 8-15 minute excerpts (about 10 chapters) from the audio book.

Just finished this and it was a great and fairly quick read. The level of detail and general inventiveness when it came to the undead threat (such as "crawlers" with severed legs being more dangerous than able-bodied ones) was very impressive.

As far as screen adaptations go, I was thinking that a company with a decent horror slate could do well to license it and produce the individual segments as 5-10 minute shorts to play in front of other slasher/monster movies over a year or two. Of course, I can see it being difficult to secure a decent budget for a project like that. They'd have to be confident in the eventual DVD collection selling well to put any money into it, and while some of my favorite segments (the pilot, the blind gardener) wouldn't require a huge sense of scope, but the bigger battle sequences definitely need some dough to do right.

It is being turned into a movie, J. Michael Straczynski wrote a script that is apparently quite good.

As for the book, I liked it quite a bit. It was pretty entertaining.

Very curious how a straight adaptation would work. But my ass will definitely be in a seat.

Great read. I was really impressed by how well thought out the Military aspects of the story were. Brooks did his homework there.
I would prefer a miniseries to a film, but I'll be there opening night.

I guess I'm the only one who thought Brooks should have given his interesting outline to a writer who could actually write?

Edit: That's unfair since the writing isn't 'bad', but the whole thing reads like one voice.

This book was a bit of a chore to get through, but the audio book was much better IMO. The movie should be interesting.

I tried the audiobook of Zombie Survival Guide a ways ago, but gave up before too long. Can't recall why exactly, but I think it felt really obvious and dull. Maybe I should give it another shot?

You weren't the only one. Decent read, and very creative, but it does read like one voice.

I also thought that the book (understandably, in one sense) spent a lot of time on the military side of things, and far less time on the 'man-on-the-street' accounts.

This makes sense, given that it is a war that Brooks is writing about, but the whole thing began to feel sort of 'samey' without more personal, non-militarized accounts to break things up. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

This book has quickly become the book I pass around to all of my friends. I think I've forced it on 7 people now; all with positive results.

Yeah, this is a good point. An oral history book like this would be more man on the street - it's the whole point of an oral history book.

I agree with whats being said..a good book and a mini-series would be awesome. or hell, a movie..i dont care i wanna see it but who knows how long its going to take anyways.

My understanding is that J. Michael Strazinski (is that how you spell his name?) wrote a script that everyone involved has liked a lot. Brad Pitt's production company is the one working on it. If Pitt shows the same taste as a producer that he does as an actor, there could be a very good film in the future - whenever they get around to doing it.