New World War Z writer

The shambling undead will eventually consume the raw flesh of audiences in WORLD WAR Z, Paramount’s adaptation of the superb novel (and even better audiobook) from Max Brooks (yes, son of Mel). But like those dessicated reanimated cadavers, it’s moving a little slowly.

According to Fangoria, Brooks himself has revealed that the draft by J. Michael Straczynski (writer of CHANGELING and creator of “Babylon 5”) is now being rewritten by A-list scribe Matthew Michael Carnahan (bro of Smokin’ Joe), who recently penned THE KINGDOM and STATE OF PLAY and will now handle mankind’s full-blown chaotic conflict against deadly meat.

Straczynski’s script was reportedly solid, so why the change? “They say it’s a positive move because they’re very excited,” Brooks joked, “But the truth is, it’s also positive because they just paid him a buttload of money, and [with] the money they paid him, the money they paid Straczynski and they money they’ve paid me, they’ve really dug themselves a deep hole, so they better make this thing!”

The story is set in the aftermath of a war fought between humanity and a legion of flesh-eating zombies, and is told anthology-style through a series of “interviews” with survivors. The film will presumably create a single main character as a conduit for viewers to experience the horrors. Brad Pitt’s company Plan B is producing, and Marc Forster (QUANTUM OF SOLACE) is attached to direct the cinematic corpses.