It was announced last week that movie mega-star Brad Pitt will be the star of an upcoming theatrical adaptation of one of the best-selling zombie books of all time: World War Z. But where are all the good-looking actors willing to play the role of a zombie?
Pitt will undoubtedly be one of the biggest names in Hollywood to star in a zombie movie, a genre that is littered with independent garbage and completely unknown actors. But zombies are getting hotter and hotter, and no one’s hotter than Brad Pitt (or so I’ve been told).
Of course Pitt’s character will most likely lead the way to saving the entire planet of a zombie infestation. That’s not giving away any spoilers; that’s just what everyone assumes when there’s a movie about humans versus zombies.
Plots have become so predictable. When you think of zombie movies, you think of the heroes. They’re usually good looking, they’re intelligent, and in a lot of zombie slashers they get to have sex with an equally hot character.
Let me ask you, though: who was the last notable actor you can think of who played a zombie? Since films usually depict an army of hundreds of zombies against just a handful of humans (how do the humans always win, again?) rarely has there ever been any focus on the undead characters. Every now and then you’ll get a movie where one of the central characters himself gets turned into a zombie, but that’s usually a scenario for largely unknown actors anyway.
Is it because filmmakers think that no one wants to see a zombie as a main character? Is it because no actor with an actual reputation wants to undergo the process of putting on gallons of makeup to look disgusting?
Regardless, I think it would have been much more interesting if it was revealed that Brad Pitt was going to actually portray a zombie. Just think about it for a minute. Whoever decides to be the first big-name celebrity to play a zombie will become the Edward Cullen of the undead (Edward Cullen, for those of you who aren’t 13-year-old girls, is the teenage vampire hunk in the Twilight series of books and movies).
Honestly, if there can be vampires, werewolves, witches, wizards, and even giant apes that are portrayed as heroes, why are zombies the one group being left out?
Mark Raby is the author of the upcoming book The Zombie Code, a humorous story of what it is actually like to be a zombie, expelling myths that have been portrayed for years on the big screen. Due to hit Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers in September, The Zombie Code is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.
