Trailer Talk: 'World War Z' Sneak Doesn't Chase Bad Buzz Away

A big-budget zombie film starring Brad Pitt seems like Hollywood’s best stab at  sure thing.

Not so fast.

For starters. Pitt isn’t a natural fit for a popcorn disaster film like World War Z, heading to theaters in June. More importantly, the film itself has been delayed repeatedly and partially reshot, signs that there’s trouble in this undead apocalypse.

Sunday, consumers can see for themselves if World War Z deserves must-view status. The film will air a teaser during the Super Bowl broadcast, but we can sneak a peek at both the commercial and the full-length trailer now courtesy of Apple.

Both trailers hint at what’s to come, a zombie film with an unrestrained budget. That may matter since the vast majority of undead features arrive with very little monetary muscle behind them. Consider how little George A. Romero’s landmark shocker Night of the Living Dead cost to make back in 1968 – $114,000.

Juan of the Dead, one of the more recent zombie successes, operated from a similarly tight budget.

Not World War Z, which is estimated to cost $200 million and flashes that fact in every second of the trailers. Pitt looks like he’s embracing his star power here, which is a welcome change for an actor who loves to shed his skin for various roles. The worldwide scale of the zombie outbreak also is dutifully detailed, another perk to having all those zeroes in the budget.

But what about the zombies? Either the studio is hiding them from us, or the obviously CGI beasties shown en masse are what we can expect.

To paraphrase Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg, zombies will be rolling over in their graves when they see these digital monsters dashing across the screen.

Romero’s zombie handbook clearly states that zombies shuffle–they don’t run.