Coming soon: 'World War Z'

I feel like such a dip wad right now, because I had no idea that Max Brooks, the author of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, was Mel Brooks' son until today. Anyway, I'm frantically trying to finish this book before the movie adaptation hits theaters on June 21.

Given the way World War Z is written (it's basically a collection of interviews with survivors of the zombie apocalypse), I can pretty much guess that the movie version won't follow the book too closely. It would be ridiculously confusing, I suspect. I've seen the World War Z movie trailers, and while they look okay, I'm not sure about this film yet. I want it to be good, very badly, because I'm certainly enjoying the book immensely, even though I'm feeling a little pressure to hurry up and finish in time.

Last week, while taking in the magic-themed caper flick Now You See Me, we saw another trailer for World War Z. The packed theater buzzed as the trailer ended. There's clearly huge interest in this film - and not just from horror or science fiction buffs, either. I mean come on, it's a Brad Pitt movie, there will be some universal appeal.

Anyway, today I came across what might be one of the first official reviews of World War Z, from critic Todd McCarthy. Bottom line, according to McCarthy: World War Z is going to make "date-night thrill seekers" pretty happy. What it might do, however, is irritate fans of Max Brooks' book.

Uh oh. Don't say I didn't warn you guys. This review mentions, quite clearly, that there are differences between the movie and the book that might ruffle more than a few feathers.

One of the issues that particularly concerns me: While a lot of World War Z deals with nations and how they struggled, politically, to deal with the situation as the zombie swarms were invading and taking major cities, the movie might gloss over that more than a little bit. Anything that fails to address this, at least somewhat, is a massive failure to me.

Any other World War Z fans out there care to weigh in? Are you worried about the movie adaptation staying true to Max Brooks' novel? I guess we'll all find out in a couple of weeks. Between staying true (or not) to the book and all the rumors of production headaches, I'm pretty apprehensive.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to the book before time runs out...

Photo courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter