New Screenwriter Hired for 'World War Z'

Fangoria is reporting that the "World War Z" adaptation in the works over at Paramount is being revised by a different screenwriter. Originally, it was J. Michael Straczynski who had been adapting Max Brooks' book, but now it's Matthew Michael Carnahan, a "specialist in political thrillers" whose past credits include "State of Play" and "The Kingdom."

“He’s one of Hollywood's hot A-list writers, so if they went after him and paid him a mountain of gold, it definitely shows their confidence in this project,” Brooks said.

Brooks adds: “They say it’s a positive move because they’re very excited, but the truth is, it’s also positive because they just paid him a buttload of money, and [with] the money they paid him, the money they paid Straczynski and they money they’ve paid me, they’ve really dug themselves a deep hole, so they better make this thing!"

Straczynski has openly talked about his script quite a bit and from the way he describes his version of Max Brooks' book, it sounds like it will be a very political movie that involves the government, which might explain why Matthew Michael Carnahan is actually good fit for this.

I'm still curious to see if there is more to this story than we're hearing. When Marc Foster was hire as director he said that production would begin for the film sometime this year, but that might nit happen if the script has to be rewritten. I'll keep you updated on the development of "World War Z," a project I am still very much looking forward to one day seeing.

Sources: First Showing, Fangoria