Forster to Conduct World War Z

Are these zombies the fast-moving or slow-moving types? 

Well, well, well. It looks like Marc Forster is going form directing James Bond to flesh-eating zombies. Variety reports that Forster has picked up the gig directing the adaptation of Max Brooks’s novel World War Z. J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay.

The book is about a worldwide infestation of zombies, as recounted by survivors ten years later in interviews with a UN War Commission investigator. Nice to know that the UN survived.

(I should note that the Variety article, while describing the plot, said that the infestation “obliterated every country on the map.” If every country was obliterated, how can there be any survivors? Which is it? A strange twist in the book or just poor writing/editing from Variety?)

Forster says: “The genre always fascinated me, and when they pitched it to me, it reminded me of the paranoid conspiracy films of the ’70s like All the President’s Men.”

The Variety article says that Forster, director of the just-released Bond film Quantum of Solace, is unlikely to be tapped for another go-round with the franchise. I don’t know if this is because the Bond powers that be are unhappy with him for some reason or that they just as a policy avoid repeating directors. I don’t know what could make them unhappy–Quantum is racking up zillions of dollars and has gotten fairly positive, though not ecstatic reviews. Anyway, just something to wonder about.

And if you’re wondering about something else, then yes, Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. If you’re now thinking, hey, Brooks is a really common name, I wasn’t wondering that at all, then just enjoy the info anyway. And also, I remember hearing about the book was very good when it first came out. Pick it up and read it. If nothing else, you may learn how to survive a zombie attack.