In large Hollywood productions, it is not uncommon for individual scenes to be reshot, and the films can also become somewhat more expensive. The zombie film World War Z took this to the extreme: 25 million dollars went into a new ending.
What kind of film is this? World War Z is a zombie film from 2013 starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster. Despite this promising duo, things did not look good for the blockbuster for some time.
Because after a large part of the third act had already been filmed, everything was discarded and a new ending had to be found.
If you’re into zombie action, it’s worth checking out our video on Dead Island 2.
The original ending was not easy fare
What was the original ending supposed to look like? The original ending of World War Z painted a rather bleak picture: After Brad Pitt’s character, researcher Gerry Lane, escapes from Israel by airplane, he ends up in Russia.
There he is drafted into the military to fight the zombie plague. A time jump follows, and eventually, Lane leads his unit through impressive battles in the Russian winter.
The researcher manages to contact his family, who is stuck in a refugee camp in the USA. His wife has resorted to prostitution out of necessity. Lane sets out to save his family. The film ends with him storming the coast of Oregon with his unit.
Too dark for Paramount
Why was the ending changed? The original version was apparently too dark for those responsible at Paramount. The studio preferred a more optimistic ending for the summer blockbuster. So the script was rewritten, and the camera was rolled again.
The reshoot is reported to have cost Sensacine 25 million US dollars and catapulted the budget from 175 million to 200 million dollars. However, there are different figures regarding how expensive the film actually was.
Colleagues from Moviepilot report estimates between 125 million and 400 million dollars. Nevertheless, the last-minute change of the entire third act gives the film a proud place at number 2 on the list of the most expensive deleted scenes (via Screenrant).
After all: With a worldwide box office of over 540 million dollars, it seems the changes were worth it – or at least did not significantly harm the success.
At least the effort was not in vain, as parts of the original ending can be seen in the new finale as a brief montage.
That more expensive does not necessarily mean better has also been experienced by other filmmakers. One of the best series on Netflix has been a real bargain with previous costs of 318 million US dollars.
