World War Z Screenwriter Straczynski Replaced

This news just came in from the popular horror magazine Fangoria, which reports that J. Michael Straczynski, most famously known as the creator of Babylon 5, will not be adapting the Max Brook’s novel World War Z, but instead the film will be adapted by Matthew Michael Carnahan, writer of the Kingdom.

In 2003, Max Brooks, former writer to SNL from 2001-2003, authored The Zombie Survival Guide, a tongue-in-cheek guide on what to do should the world suddenly find itself in a doomsday apocalyptic scenario. This was quickly followed up with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which, like its predecessor, detailed the fictional accounts of a zombie apocalypse. The film rights were bought shortly thereafter by Plan B Entertainment and have gotten Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) to direct the picture.

Some critics have noted that this film might already be hemorrhaging money so early in the film process. I know for a fact that to have J. Straczynski doesn’t come cheap, not since his work as the writer for Changeling (to which he didn’t receive a writing nomination for best Oscar but in my opinion should have). Nevertheless I’ve been following this story closely and will bring you updates as they come to me.