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On October 21st, 2013, Max Brooks, author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide spoke at the Memorial Union Building at the University of New Hampshire. I went to go hear him speak (or crack jokes the whole time) and got the privilege to speak with him before the "lecture" (??). You can read the full interview or listen to it at the bottom of the text version.
1. Q: Fans of the book World War Z will, upon watching the movie, quickly come to terms with the fact that the two are both about zombies and the similarities end there!
Really???!!!!
Besides the general theme.......
And the general title
[Laughs] Yes, and the general title.
Why is the movie adaption World War Z so different from the book?
That is an excellent question...
Okay, let me begin, in a land far, far away called Hollywood.
They have a whole other set of rules. Basically, it comes down to economics. When you write a book, especially the way I write... I don’t take an advance. So therefore, I don’t owe anybody anything. Writing a book... it’s pretty cheap to write, other than research costs. So, your writing budget is not very intense, you can put anything in a book that you want, you can tell any story you want because it’s only going to be on the page. But when you make a movie, it’s just about making money, and when you make a summer blockbuster, it’s really about making money, and when you make a summer blockbuster starring the biggest movie star in the world, it’s really really about making lots and lots of money. So therefore, the powers at [Plan B, the movie studio] need to figure out not only how do we make a movie, but how do we make a hit. If my book had bombed.... so what? It would have hurt my ego but nothing else. If the movie World War Z had not done well, some people would never work again! In fact, I can think of at least one or two people who would end up in a hole, like in Silence of the Lambs. So the economics are completely different and maybe... I don’t know... maybe that’s why they felt they had to deviate from the book. Because, in all honesty, it’s a weird book.
A good book
Yes, it’s a good book, but also a weird book. I mean, there’s no hero, the hero is the human race! And that sounds pretty good for a book but not great in a movie. There is no villain, there’s no sort of racing the clock. There’s no miracle cure. [World War Z] has none of the things that make a good movie. To be totally honest, I’m surprised they optioned the rights at all. When I heard that [Plan B] had optioned it, I was like “This’ll be interesting.” So I think, overall, the reason they changed the movie so much was to boost ticket sales. And boy, did they succeed!
2. Q: While thinking up the plot for World War Z, did you ever think you would see it on the big screen and, if you did, did you visualize it differently than it ended up?
No, no, I never thought I would see it on the big screen, never. I mean, even when Brad Pitt optioned it, I thought it would just get stuck in development for a few years. I used to do a lot of conventions and talks like [the one I’m doing at UNH tonight ], and I’d tell fans, you know, hold your horses. There’s a really good chance that this movie is not going to get made. I said, nobody is going to make a 100 million zombie movie. it turns out I was right, they made a 200 million dollar zombie movie. [Chuckles]
3. Q: How involved were you with the casting of World War Z and, if you were very involved, did you have any particular interest in Brad Pitt as the star (How involved were you in the creation of the movie?)
I was about as involved as you were.
4. Q: How did the creation of the movie adaption of World War Z begin? Did you approach a studio to begin the production of it or did they approach you with a request to option the film rights?
You know, I think what happened was that... I think Leonardo DiCaprio had... as far as I remember, this was a long time ago, uh... In a galaxy far far away [Chuckles]
[Chuckles]
So I think there was an article in the New York Times about the book coming out and Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to get his hands on the manuscript. And he did, and he read it. This is... This is before it was published. And he wanted it, he wanted to option it. Around the same time, Brad Pitt, I think, heard about it roughly at the same time. And he got a hold of it. And the two guys got into a bidding war over it. So thats, thats how it went down.
So lets finish up with the book World War Z, for the end of my interview. I’m sorry, I thought these questions would take longer.
No, no, I’m sorry that I don’t have more to tell you because, you know, look, this, this is a really good question of, of sort of my involvement, and sometimes the author is invited to be part of the movie and, but that’s also sort of in smaller movies. You know, because the bigger a project’s budget gets, the more is riding on it, the more a studio will trust big name screenwriters with massive screen credits behind them. Uh, I..I mean, the truth is, not participating in it emotionally was much better than say, what happened to Stephen King on The Shining. He wrote the first draft and then he got fired off his own movie by Stanley Cooper. So, I got off easy compared to some other guys.
5. Q: Let’s talk about the book itself for a second. You are the author of the bestselling book The Zombie Survival Guide, and the book World War Z is based off the principles created in that “guide.” Were you always planning to make a book like WW Z or did you finish The Zombie Survival Guide without a thought of “continuing the saga?”
Do you mean like...
Oh, oh, are you asking that when I was writing Zombie Survival Guide was I thinking about World War Z?
Yes.
You know, that’s a really good question, I get asked that a lot. And the truth is... I didn’t. I literally wrote Zombie Survival Guide in the late 90s in response to the Y2K scare, stuck it in a drawer for a couple years, and it wasn’t until Zombie Survival Guide was out that I thought “I want to write another zombie book.” I don’t want to write another classic zombie story that I’ve been seeing since I was a kid which revolves around a group of survivors who need to get from one place to another and their adventures along the way. I think other people do that job very well.
You wanted to do something different?
Well, I wanted to answer my own question. Like, I’m sure you go to movies...Clearly...And I’m sure you have moments where you’re like “Wait a minute...that doesn’t make sense, what about this part, what about that part and.. what’s happening? I just had questions, and I just set out to answer my own questions.
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After the interview, Max Brooks signed the only physical copy of World War Z I have: a library book. He wrote “To Sam: Buy them a new copy!” I then stayed to listen to his talk which filled the very large house. For a zombie author, I thought that, even more than in my interview, Brooks was very funny, making many jokes and not-so-subtle references to Brad Pitt and the movie WW Z. If you get a chance to go see him speak, I highly suggest it.
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