This may be the wrong place for it, but as this has become a catch all thread I’ll ask anyway: What is a good zombie book? I read WWZ and I’m currently reading Cell. Surely there are better out there.
I know it’s a “graphic novel” and not an actual book, but The Walking Dead is unquestionably the best zombie fiction going these days.
Give the first volume a try and you’ll be hooked, if you’re into character-driven post-apocalyptic undead scourge stories.
BTW, The Walking Dead has just been optioned by AMC and is being written by Frank Darabont.
http://reporter.blogs.com/comiccon/2009/08/walking-dead-frank-darabont-amc-gale-anne-hurd.html
A book of short stories, all zombie all the time, is Book of the Dead.
Downside: short story collection, not a novel
Upside: better than any zombie novel I’ve read(WWZ not being a novel, imo), we are talking quality stories here
This is also a good collection of zombie short stories. Many different authors, including Joe Lansdale, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, etc. Different types of zombies, but really high quality throughout the book.
There’s an equally good sequel Still Dead as well (as I think I mentioned earlier and that damn Neopythia should just slog through all the arguments to find that post, dammit)
Wet Work is decent, I think it is a novel based on a short in book of the dead or still dead. It is a bit silly from time to time though.
Arise! Not looking good for this film.
It now seems that everything was upside-down on World War Z. “A nightmare from top to bottom,” describes one source with ties to the production, which appears to have been hampered from the outset by a lack of clear creative direction. Pitt hired the director of his choosing, Marc Forster (The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland), but Forster – who has limited experience on effects-heavy tentpoles – was not allowed to bring along his usual team. Instead, several more seasoned players were hired. The result, say multiple sources, is a seemingly headless enterprise driven by conflicts. At this point, the movie, with a price tag now said to be north of $170 million, needs as many as five weeks of complex reshoots, which are not expected to get underway until at least September. Paramount has taken the unusual step of hiring Prometheus scriptwriter Damon Lindelof to rework the film’s third act. The studio announced in March that it was moving the film to June 2013 from December.
Trouble emerged early: Three weeks before shooting was to begin in June 2011, sources say Forster had not made critical decisions about what the zombies would look like and how they would move. “They just couldn’t get it right,” one insider says. “There was a lot of spinning of plates, a lot of talking. [But] they did not have a plan.” Meanwhile, seasoned below-the-line talents were hired, then replaced, including line producer Colin Wilson (Avatar) and Oscar-winning effects man John Nelson (Gladiator). Cinematographer Robert Richardson, who has three Oscars, is said to have asked to leave the production on more than one occasion. (None would comment for this report.)
And they cite this situation as one of many in which studios set release dates and then push to finish in the timeframe allotted, leaving insufficient prep time.
They’re picking up on the worst traits of the game industry.
Yep, a lot of my industry collegues down the street have been given unpaid ‘vacation’ for the summer as this went on hold. It’s amazing to me how slapdash the industry is getting with their prep. Back in the day you got it right ON the day, because there wasn’t any going back. Now, with so much being digital, there’s the impression you can rewrite, replace and rework up until the last second, which is hell for everyone involved and an amazing waste of money that could have been spent elsewhere.
Not to mention that more and more of the revision work is to make a movie more formulaic and derivative, not less, in reaction to annoying focus groups that want what they’ve come to expect in a story arc-- that really shouldn’t matter much since most of the money is made through marketing first weekend sales, not word of mouth.
At this point, the movie, with a price tag now said to be north of $170 million,
Sweet Jesus. This film was always going to be nothing like the book and probably terrible, but still. For a couple of dozen million you could do a proper WWZ movie as a documentary.
So they hired the guy to fix their movie who was part of the making the Prometheus script the tight…well thought out plot…great characters…yeah this movie is officially fucked.
Listen to the audio book instead, really enjoyed it. Plus it has John Turturro and Mark Hamill.
in fact, in an extra twist of irony, read about the audiobook here:
Too many cooks in the kitchen, I’d wager. And many of those cooks are wearing suits.
Due to the way the book was written, I think the audiobook may be the best way to “read” it, even if it leaves out some of the interesting parts I liked. it certainly doesn’t hurt that most of the voice actors they got were really good.
The good news is apparently Max Brooks is doing an unabridged version of the audiobook… Nathan Fillion has done a chapter in it.