Authors disliking film adaptations of their work is nothing new. Stephen King, Alan Moore, Anthony Burgess, Ken Kesey and a host of other writers have publicly slammed movies supposedly based on their work.
Now we can add Max Brooks, author of the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, to that prestigious list. The Huffington Post reports that Brooks gave nothing but low marks for the blockbuster starring Brad Pitt during an interview at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania , stating that the film only shares his book’s title, “and that’s it.”
Adding insult to injury, Brooks claims the producers didn’t approach him to look at the script until after filming already began. To which he replied:
“Why would I read this? This is not the movie you’re going to make,” Brooks said. “You’re going to do rewrites and reshoots. That’s what happens when you make a giant movie. My attitude is if you haven’t invited me in to contribute, then fine. Go make the movie you want to make and I’ll see it when it comes out.”
As for fans of his novel, Brooks had this warning:
“I cannot guarantee that the movie will be the book that they love. And I’m in no position to tell people to see this movie or not see it. If I’m asked I say: See the movie as a movie and judge it as a movie.”
Which is solid advice, all you purists out there. Movies are fundamentally different, and thus they’ll never be exactly like the book. Still, Brooks’ frustration is understandable, as it’s beginning to sound like the movie bears no resemblance whatsoever to its source material. He could always go the Stephen King route and remove his name from the film, as the King of Horror did with The Lawnmower Man.
via Max Brooks Publicly Disses ‘World War Z’ Movie | LitReactor.
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