Screenwriter Talks WWZ

By Jon Condit
February 28th, 2007

Word come down from last weekend New York Comic Con (via IGN) that "Babylon 5" co-creator Michael will be writing the screenplay adaptation of Max Brook’s very well-received zombie book World War Z (review).

The book is written in the form of an anthology, featuring interviews with survivors of a zombie apocalypse who give their own unique perspectives on the end of the world. Not exactly a format that lends itself to film, which Straczynski acknowledged:

"...you have to create who the interviewer is and give him some background and bring him from place to place to place to place. And they said, 'Feel free to get as political as you want, as incisive as you want, to play with it. You could look at this as a Katrina kind of catastrophe,'" he told the NYCC crowd. "But I'm being very faithful to the book, letter by letter when I can, and I'm on about page 70 right now and I'm really happy with it. I'm really pleased with it actually, so if that goes well we might go into production on that one."

Of course some structure changes would have to be done for it to be a realistic attempt at a movie; good to hear that the writer knows what the hell he’s doing. Keep it here for more, and be sure to get yourself a copy of World War Z through Evilshop. You won’t regret it!

- Johnny Butane