World War Z is a 2013 American action horror film directed by Marc Forster, with a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof, from a story by Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski, based on the novel by 2006 of the same name. by Max Brooks. The film stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who travels the world gathering clues to find a way to stop a zombie pandemic.[12] The supporting cast includes Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, Ludi Boeken, Fana Mokoena, David Morse, Peter Capaldi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Ruth Negga and David Andrews.

Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment picked up the film rights in 2007; Straczynski was approached to write and Forster to direct. In 2009, Carnahan was hired to rewrite the script. Filming began in July 2011 in Malta, with an estimated budget of $125 million, before moving to Glasgow in August 2011 and Budapest in October 2011. The production, originally scheduled for release in December 2012, suffered some setbacks. In June 2012, the film’s release date was delayed and the crew returned to Budapest for seven weeks of additional filming. Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite the third act, but he did not have time to finish the script, and Drew Goddard was hired to rewrite it. The reshoots took place between September and October 2012, increasing the budget to $190 million, although some publications have listed it at $269 million.

World War Z premiered in London on June 3, 2013 and was chosen to open the 35th Moscow International Film Festival. The film premiered in New York and Los Angeles on June 14, 2013, and was released everywhere on June 21, 2013, in the United States, in 2D and RealD 3D. The film received positive reviews for Brad Pitt’s performance and as a realistic revival of the zombie genre, but received some criticism for the anticlimax, outdated CGI, and lack of fidelity to the source material. Regardless, the film was a commercial success, grossing over $540 million against a production budget of $190 million, becoming the highest-grossing zombie film of all time. A sequel was announced shortly after the film’s release, but in February 2019 it was canceled, reportedly due to budget issues.