Sorry, "World War Z" fans: It seems that the movie, which will star Brad Pitt and be directed by Marc Forster ("Quantum of Solace"), may be very different from the best-selling book by Max Brooks.
And movie buffs on the Web are certainly rising up like an undead army to denouce the not-yet-finished horror flick.
The novel charts a U.N. worker's accounts of oral histories of a decade-long zombie war. The movie, according to bloggers who saw the press release, will take place as the zombie world war is breaking out when there is still time to stop it -- completely different from the premise -- and the timing -- of the book.
There had been reports that this atypical monster tale would certainly be a challenge to put into film. Paramont's seeming solution? As the AV Club sees it, "Make a typical zombie movie anyway."
Movies.com quotes the press release as explaining the film this way: "The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself."
Comments were, well, apocalyptic. On the Movies.com blog, a typical negative swipe: "Based on Paramount's plot synopsis, the film should say 'Inspired by the same stuff that inspired the book World War Z by Max Brooks.'"
Another disappointed commenter wrote, "When I heard they were going to make this into a movie I was really excited to see what this would look like on film. I'm no longer excited. Thanks, Paramount."
Still another fan noted, "Of course we're all still seeing it, but what we're seeing isn't 'World War Z,' plain and simple."
Interest in the zombie flick grew on Yahoo! with news of the controversy: In the last day, lookups all increased for "world war z," "world war z movie," and "world war z movie trailer."
Brad Pitt has already arrived in Glasgow to begin filming the monster-war movie. The massive enterprise includes a cast and crew of 1,200, fake sets that remake the U.K. city into "war-torn" Philadelphia, and plenty of locals to play undead extras.
It's certainly possible the press release doesn't do the cinematic plot justice. At least, fans of the book can certainly hope that's the case.
The zombie doomsday movie is set to open on December 21, 2012.
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