Talking to Collider at the Saturn Awards last week, screenwriter and director Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) has clarified his involvement with the troubled Marc Forster helmed World War Z. It was reported earlier this month that Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) had been brought in to sort out the ending before the film headed back for reshoots, with later reports then indicating that he had passed these responsibilities on to Goddard due to other commitments. As you can see from his comments below, it sounds as if the reports of him rewriting the entire third act of the film were somewhat blown out of proportion.
"I think a lot of that got blown out of proportion. It really was like, they asked me to come look at the movie and give ideas on how to help, and that’s what happened. That happens all the time, I don’t know why this got blown up with World War Z and it suddenly became a big thing. It’s the sort of thing that happens with screenwriters all the time where you give your ideas on what could help, you write some scenes for people. I feel bad for the sort of magnifying glass that that movie’s under because this is just a normal part of the process, this is just what happens. My involvement was just watch the movie, give some ideas, write some scenes that might help, ADR, just sort of fill in stuff, which is what I did."
As for his what he thinks about
World War Z, he didn't want to give too much away at this point, but did have the following to say about what he was lucky enough to see while working on the project.
"Out of respect for the filmmakers, I don't want to say too much about World War Z, just because I owe it to them to let it come out as the they want. What I will say is that some of the stuff I saw was mind-blowing."
As you may already know, Goddard worked with
Marvel's The Avengers writer and director Joss Whedon on
The Cabin in the Woods screenplay, and was quick to point out just how incredible the superhero ensemble was a few months before its release (and he wasn't wrong). As for whether or not he's actually interested in being involved with a big screen comic book adaptation, it turns out that he's made his love of 20th Century Fox's stable of Marvel's characters to studio head Tim Rothman, and that there is someone in particular that he's a big fan of.
"You're talking to a guy who had quotes from Daredevil painted on his wall while growing up. Even when I was 18, I still had the blood red door with the, 'I have shown him that a man without hope is a man without fear'. That was what I loved and so it's the sort of thing that if we can find the right project, I would love to do it. They have most of the stuff that was on my walls as a kid. These conversations always happen, but until anything's official, who knows? I definitely put it out there that I love all of these characters. I haven't really thought about it too much in terms of how to make a movie. Like everyone else, I love 'Born Again'. That was just seminal work for me, but everything that Frank Miller did on Daredevil is like the Bible to me."
Has he spoken to Fox about potentially writing and directing
Daredevil? Perhaps, although don't get too excited as the studio are under pressure to get production moving by this Fall (otherwise they risk losing the rights to Marvel Studios) and Goddard says he is currently working on something else altogether. Read the full interview by clicking on the link below, share your thoughts in the usual place.