It stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who travels the world seeking a solution for a sudden zombie apocalypse,[12] along with an ensemble supporting cast including Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.

With a planned December 2012 release and a projected budget of $125 million, filming began in July 2011 in Malta, before moving to Glasgow in August and Budapest in October.

The production suffered some setbacks, and, in June 2012, the release date was pushed back, and the crew returned to Budapest for seven weeks of additional shooting.

Reviews were generally positive, with praise for Pitt's performance and for the film as a revival of the zombie genre, but criticism of what some felt was an anti-climax and a lack of faithfulness to the source material.

[13] Former United Nations investigator Gerald "Gerry" Lane, his wife, Karin, and their two daughters, Rachel and Connie, are caught in traffic in downtown Philadelphia when zombies invade.

Gerry, Fassbach, and a Navy SEAL escort fly to Camp Humphreys in South Korea, where the first report of zombies was received, leading to an attack on the team upon arrival.

In Jerusalem, Gerry encounters Jurgen Warmbrunn, a high-ranking Mossad official, who mentions that intercepted communications of Indian troops fighting zombies is what led Israel to set up defenses.

Gerry calls Thierry and requests that he redirect the plane to a medical research facility in Cardiff owned by the World Health Organization.

To eliminate the zombies, Gerry detonates a grenade to breach the cabin and expel them; the resulting explosion causes the plane to crash land.

After a bidding war with Appian Way Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment secured the screen rights to Max Brooks' novel in 2007.

[14] The first draft of the screenplay was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who identified the challenge in adapting the work as "creating a main character out of a book that reads as a UN report on the zombie wars.

"[21] An early script was leaked onto the internet in March 2008, leading to a review by Ain't It Cool News that called it "[not] just a good adaptation of a difficult book [but] a genre-defining piece of work that could well see us all arguing about whether or not a zombie movie qualifies as 'Best Picture' material".

[23] The Ain't It Cool News review also noted the film appears stylistically similar to Children of Men (2006), following Gerry Lane as he travels the post-war world and interviews survivors of the zombie war who are "starting to wonder if survival is a victory of any kind.

[33] In June, James Badge Dale entered negotiations to join the film as an American soldier who tries to alert the authorities to the zombie threat.

[36] A few days later, it was reported that filming would also take place in Glasgow, Scotland, in August,[37] the city doubling for Philadelphia, "with false shop fronts being constructed and American cars on the roads.

[43] With a reported budget of over $125 million,[29] World War Z began principal photography in July 2011 in Malta, with the first images of production being released a few days later.

[45] At least 3,000 people showed up at a casting call in Glasgow on July 9, hoping for the opportunity to appear in a scene set in a financial district in Philadelphia.

[49] In August, Bryan Cranston entered negotiations to join the film in a "small but flashy" role, but he ultimately had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

Steven McMenemy, the Argus's navigator said: "The ship sailed and we were joined by four small catamarans which were being used as markers for the cameras, so that warships could be added in with CGI later.

[56][57] On February 10, 2012, the charges were dropped after investigators were unable to identify exactly which "organization or person" had "ownership rights"; therefore they could not "establish which party was criminally liable".

In June 2012, screenwriter Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite the film's third act, with reshoots scheduled to begin that September or October.

[8][9][63] Several of the scenes shot in Budapest, including a large-scale battle with the zombies in Moscow's Red Square,[64] were dropped from the final cut in order to water down the film's political undertones and steer it towards a more generally friendly summer blockbuster.

[65] The climactic battle scene in Russia, for which there was 12 minutes of footage, reportedly had Pitt's character fighting through zombies more like "a warrior hero" than "the sympathetic family man" of the earlier acts.

[66] In March 2013, it was reported that Paramount changed a scene in the film, in which the characters speculate that the zombie outbreak originated in mainland China, in hopes of landing a distribution deal in the country.

The website's consensus reads: "It's uneven and diverges from the source book, but World War Z still brings smart, fast-moving thrills and a solid performance from Brad Pitt to the zombie genre.

[87] Henry Barnes of The Guardian considered the film an "attempt at large-scale seriousness" in the zombie genre that resulted in a "punchy, if conventional action thriller.

"[88] Writing for Variety, Scott Foundas found the film a "surprisingly smart, gripping and imaginative addition to the zombie-movie canon", which shows "few visible signs of the massive rewrites, reshoots and other post-production patchwork.

"[89] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter opined that "Brad Pitt delivers a capable performance in an immersive apocalyptic spectacle about a global zombie uprising.

[98] In April 2019, Saber Interactive released a co-operative third-person shooter game of the same name for PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, which includes missions set around the world in New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tokyo, and Marseille.

[114] A source quoted by The Hollywood Reporter said the Chinese government's ban on films featuring zombies or ghosts was the single major reason that Paramount canceled the sequel.