Adaptation for World War Z

Adaption of the book World War Z

By: Austin Maher

 

For the adaptation for the book World War Z to work, you first need some really good special effects. And more than likely a very high budget, just because most of the scenes will be filled with explosions, zombies, and crashes exc. Also you need to keep the attitude of the soldiers, and normal civilians throughout. With the soldiers they have a mentality of just a little bit longer (which is a larger concept for everyone around the world at this point). As for the civilians, they seem to think this is all the governments fault, and everyone is turning against one another. Mainly because people will be like oh it’s just a scratch from a piece of metal when in reality it is actually a bite from a zombie and they are soon to become one of the living dead. So in this time trust is minimal.

A very simple and small scene to keep would be the very beginning of the story when they are talking about the “thought” of how the outbreak was started. Their idea was that somewhere in Africa while moon fishing a child went into the river and was bite by something and then later reanimated and that’s how it all started. But, I think this would be a good idea to place this scene at the end of the movie saying like 1 years before or something like that.

Around pages 50-120 they go into to detail about the army (Yonkers) who are there to kill the zombies, and contain them. This would be some good action to include in the movie, just because who doesn’t like to see someone snipe a zombie from the top of a business rooftop? Or a tank roll over a pile of discarded cars and fire a large shotgun like shell and blow 50 reanimated beings to kingdom-come? So this would be good in the middle of the movie and then towards the end to leave you sitting on the edge of your seat, only to see how it all “started” 1 year or so ago in Africa.

Around page 120-130 the book describes how people have the idea of moving north, because the zombies won’t be able to handle the winter. So as everyone is moving north and they arrive at their destination. At first everything is all nice and swell, but then people start to run out of food to find, such as fish or wild game around the surrounding area. So everyone gets very reclusive, and it turns into people killing one another. So it would be a good scene because in most movies they have the introduction, then it is followed by a problem which is fixed, then a larger issue occurs, and for the end everyone comes together and finished whatever it was off.

Two scenes that could be taken off I think is when they pan over to the other countries because it kind of throws you off. And it would be a lot easier to focus on maybe one country or specific area. Also the way the book is written as an interview, I feel like it should a view from a few people maybe like the son who is up north and a few soldiers, and not a reporter. Because you don’t really get a strong feel for any of the characters. Also when you pan around it disconnects you from the characters that you like in the one area, so then all you do is wait for them to return to the area that you did like.