Yesterday at the Philadelphia WizardWorld comics convention, Max Brooks spoke briefly about the forthcoming adaptation of his popular zombie novel World War Z.
During an hour long question and answer session in which Brooks talked about his books, an upcoming zombie graphic novel and his love for zombie movies, he stated that he has no real connection with the film’s production.
“I’m just the guy who wrote the book,” he quipped. “Why do they need me?”
Brooks went on to explain that a World War Z film is going to be expensive and that meant lots of executives putting their two cents into the movie. When something goes wrong and a movie flops, Brooks joked that one of those people has to die.
“Someone is going to be shot for Speed Racer,” he deadpanned to much laughter. “Right now, somebody is being waterboarded for that movie.”
Brooks did state that he was thrilled that J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the cult science-fiction series Babylon 5, had been tapped to write the World War Z screenplay.
“I am a HUGE B5 fan,” Brooks gushed. “I thrilled that they hired a writer who not only understands science fiction, but who also understands history and politics and emotions. The fact that they hired JMS is really cool.”
Brooks also recounted a short conversation he had with Straczynski at another comics convention shortly after he had received the screenwriting assignment. Straczynski told Brooks that he would try to not screw up his book. “I was like ‘Dude, you don’t have anything to prove to me!'”
Straczynski is currently receiving positive notices for his script to Clint Eastwood’s latest film, The Changeling, which screened last month at Cannes. He has recently turned in a draft of Ninja Assassin, which is being produced by the Wachowski Brothers, and has numerous other projects in the works.
While he admits that the production process could entail other writers coming in to rewrite Straczynski’s script, Brooks stated that he found the first draft “really freaking good!”
“I’m not happy because there’s parts of my book in there. It’s because he is a really good writer!”
