China Banned Brad Pitt's Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Franchise, But It's Exploding Into Broadcasts Anyway.
Posted by Rick Gonzales | Published
It's now approaching fifteen years old, and Brad Pitt's apocalyptic zombie film World War Z is blowing up the airwaves. It is the most watched film on Paramount+ in the United States and one of the most watched films in the world this week. Except in China, where the film was banned upon release.
World War Z by Brad Pitt in 2013 a zombie-apocalypse film based on the 2006 novel World War Z: The Narrative History of Zombie Warfare by best-selling author Max Brooks (son of legendary film producer Mel Brooks). Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former UN agent stuck in Philadelphia traffic with his wife, Karin (Mireille Enos), and their two daughters, Rachel and Connie. While trying to travel with the slogan, the city is overrun by zombies.
As the city falls, the Lanes manage to escape to Newark, New Jersey, where they take refuge with the couple and their son Tommy in an apartment. Things quickly take a turn for the worse as the Lanes must quickly leave when zombies attack, turning Tommy's parents into hungry undead.
Brad Pitt's character, Gerry, is able to contact an old friend, UN Deputy Secretary-General Thierry Umutoni, who is able to get a helicopter for Gerry and his family, now including Tommy, as they narrowly escape the zombie army. The Lanes are taken to a US Navy ship that sails safely in the Atlantic. On board are scientists and soldiers studying the nature of those infected with the virus.
World War Z then there is a global perspective. Gerry and the crew head to a military base in South Korea, where they are attacked by zombies. Not all survive as Gerry discovers that his next destination is Jerusalem. When Gerry arrives, he finds huge walls built to surround the city. The safety behind the wall does not last, as the zombies, upon hearing the chanting of the refugees within, gather to line the walls and attack the city.
How China Killed World War Z Trilogy
Originally, the Paramount saw World War Z as a trilogy. The film's successful opening in the United States left Paramount excited, so they announced they were moving forward with a sequel. They got a new director and a new screenwriter. But time passed, and nothing happened.
The sequel film exceeded its pre-production quota, and at one point, David Fincher was involved, but it was eventually cancelled. If you wonder why, blame China. Hollywood is now completely dependent on the Chinese box office, and the first World War Z was banned in the country. The following can also be.
Solstice Studios CEO Mark Gill said at the time: “It's not culture, it's government policy… And the reason it's government policy is that you have a government trying to control the population when there's chaos.
Chinese government policy automatically bans films featuring zombies or ghosts from being shown in the country. For this reason, films like Jordan Peele's Get out or a zombie hit Zombieland and has never seen release in China.
The reception of World War Z
However, World War Z did, without Chinese money, a decent job at the box office. Director Marc Forster was given a budget that started at $125 million, eventually rising to $200 million, and rewarded Paramount's faith by bringing in nearly $541 million at the box office.
World War Z received surprisingly strong reviews from critics and viewers alike. Critics praised the film for turning what looked like a doomed blockbuster into a tense, fast-paced zombie thriller that leaned more heavily on suspense than last year, with many reviewers citing its globe-trotting pace and big action sequences as highlights. Some longtime fans of Max Brooks' novel criticized the film for leaving out almost everything that made the book unique, but general audiences were more forgiving. .
