World War Z: Official Trailer, and A NEW Kind Of Zombie (Yup).

It’s been years in the making, but it’s finally here. The film loosely-inspired by the 2006 Max Brooks novel of the same name, World War Z (starring Brad Pitt, directed by Marc Forster)  is hitting theaters on June 21, 2013.

I say loosely-fitting, because obviously the zombies in the film are a far reach from the book. Obviously, this has already caused the internet to do two things: LOSE THEIR GODDAMN MINDS about how it’s nothing like the book, which sorry, I won’t get into, because book-to-film discussions are infuriating. Trust me. I’m obsessed with Harry Potter, I know AAAALLLLL about it. However, being so far from the source material doesn’t mean that the film won’t be entertaining on its own. Mainly because of what I’m about to show you.

Anyway…the other thing that’s happening, is the classic battle of Which Zombies Are Better?: “Romero” Zombies, which fall into the classic shuffling, re-animated dead and were the original zombies, vs “28 Days Later” Zombies, which are more infected people who are mostly still alive, and will flat out chase you at a sprint.

Here’s a chart to better explain the Zombie Danger Scale.

Visual Effects Supervisor John Nelson (Iron Man) had this to say regarding the “Zs”:

“They are like predatory animals that can’t control themselves. I worked with tigers [in Gladiator], and if you watch them when a horse goes by they go batty, even if they know they can’t reach it. When Zs see humans they do same thing, they activate. They launch themselves.

There are a lot of things in nature we’re mining as references. They move like birds or school of fish, too, in reactive formations, and it’s not because they have a higher level of [shared] thinking or communication – it’s about their nature and the fact that their instinct to infect is so basic, efficient, and overpowering. They will go through anything. If they lose both legs, they will walk on their hands. They lock in and they’re like salmon going upstream or sperm swimming to be the first to egg.”

Everyone has seen everything in this genre. So of course we looked to try to find something new. And we have some.”

So on a scale of 1-10, 1 being Romero-style Zs and 10 being 28 Days Later style Zs, World War Z turned their Zs up to 11. On  the Zombie Danger Scale, they’re somewhere above-right of Tar Man. Basically, everyone is super fucked.

Nice.