The following interview was conducted via telephone with producer Jeremy Kleiner of the film World War Z, which stars actor Brad Pitt, and is directed by Marc Forster. World War Z is a film that tells the story of a global pandemic, where the human population is being destroyed by a virus that turns them into zombies.

How was it like to tackle a film of such epic proportions?

There were a lot of elements that we were very interested in at a big level (worldwide). The development of the project was very difficult because we wanted to stay true to a lot of the elements in Max brooks book…Like (Brad Pitt) Jerry Lane trying to travel all over the world and at the same time trying to save his family....it was a difficult and interesting process to try to blend both the character/family and the movie's theme of a worldwide catastrophe.

Would you say this is a zombie film or more of a global catastrophe movie?

It's a zombie film, but not your typical one because it touches many other areas like politics, cultures (from all over the world), the human race/ethnicities…And also other parts that has to do with society (army/armed forces/ the military)…not your typical zombie movie of just a group of zombies going to a gas station and walking around a town eating brains.

What would you say the message of the movie is?

It's a humanistic message….We wanted to give the audience/movie goers a different experience with zombies that had a worldwide effect or impact (catastrophe). We wanted them to open their minds to a science thriller like none other…And I say its humanistic referring to Jerry Lane who is trying to connect the pieces in order to overcome this disaster and save the world and his family…It's humanistic because it reflects the coming together of people from all over the world.

What was it like to cast Brad Pitt and work with him?

I have worked with him before over the past 10 years and he is a very serious actor who cares a lot about his roles…he was very good to work with because he brings that and more to this movie. He is very smart and very detail oriented and has a very good professional ethic…he is a great actor who put everything he could into his character in this movie.

The movie was delayed for some time, why was that?

We believed that this movie was a better fit as a summer movie and not during the date that it was originally though for, which was around December 2012.. …it's a very big production and we wanted to get it right because we wanted to give people not just a good movie, but a great movie. We gave ourselves a little more time to be able to achieve this and produce this great production.

Was Max Brooks involved at all in the film?

He was not involved very much or hardly any...We only wanted to keep true to a lot of the elements that were very important from the book…politics, worldwide catastrophe, zombies...And the fact that people from all over the world had to come together and work to come up with a solution to this problem (disease).

World War Z will open this weekend in the United States and next week in Mexico.

VIDEO : World War Z Trailer

Jorge.Guevara@sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@sandiegored.com