By Russ Fischer/June 30, 2011 11:30 am EST
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The amazing thing here might just be that we’re reporting on a long-gestating project with Brad Pitt attached, and the news is not that he has moved on. But that would be a massive blow, as World War Z is shooting now, and will continue to roll cameras through the summer. Given that it is a big event movie with Brad Pitt in the lead, finding a couple actors to fill out these two roles shouldn’t take long.
Brooks, the author of the determinedly straight-faced parody The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), returns in all seriousness to the zombie theme for his second outing, a future history in the style of Theodore Judson’s Fitzpatrick’s War. Brooks tells the story of the world’s desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts “as told to the author” by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace. Despite its implausible premise and choppy delivery, the novel is surprisingly hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians and policies are an added bonus.
