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They had a script, it's an international Bestseller by Max Brooks. The plot was outstanding - minimal special effects required.

2 years after an epidemic that nearly wiped mankind off the face of the earth, a UN writer has collected some of the stories of the survivors from all over the world. Tales of human nature, insights into other cultures, of Government bureaucracy, corruption and denials that almost cost our very existence against a relentless foe. A foe that never runs, has no concept of fear or mercy; a foe that never sleeps, never feels pain, remorse, fatigue, heat or cold - and how humanity came back from the brink.

It's a foolproof script ... but leave it to Hollywood to wreck a story that has won acclaim all on it's own. I have read the book several times - there are lessons to be learned in that book; lessons about what governments WILL do, for self-preservation, what greed will do, how greed and corruption will work together without a thought to consequence. Zombies? They are just the antagonist - the REAL enemy is the living.

One hundred percent correct Hodar. Had they stuck to the book it would have been amazing. As you mentioned, it was a foe that 'that never runs, has no concept of fear or mercy; never sleeps, never feels pain, remorse, fatigue, heat or cold.' That is what makes the idea of zombies threatening. Not that they are dangerous, because with their slow speed they are actually quite easy to kill (the book states it is possible to walk around them even), but that with ignorance of the threat, arrogance towards the threat, and general nonchalance, the threat increases to such an extent that something that could have easily been handled by a small group of men with baseball bats becomes an existential threat. Which is similar to any real-world problem we face today ...all are easy to fix at the beginning, but no one does anything until it is too big. It reminds me of an African proverb that states the best time to kill a crocodile is when it is still in its egg. Looking at the troubles facing the world, be it financial woes, radicalism, you name it, all could have been EASILY fixed at some point, but those who could have fixed it decided it wasn't urgent enough (or simply closed their eyes to the problem).

Anyways, going back to the book vs the movie. In the book the zombies are slow ...very slow. They do not scale walls. They do not run like frenzied banshees. They represent a slow but persistent threat, which is always and forever slowly stalking you. A threat that could have easily been fixed early enough, but is now everywhere. This is especially shown at the Battle of Yonkers, where the US Army faces off against the undead hordes. Total shock and awe, tanks and Apache helicopters, MLRS rockets and even napalm-type incendiaries. It should have been an easy win. However, rather than have the soldiers at strategic places (e.g. on top of buildings shooting down), they were exposed. At this time the undead numbered in the millions, and when the bullets ran out ....

I watched the movie. The zombies run. There is absolutely nothing to do with the book apart from the name. Nothing about the Chinese nuclear submarine and what it went through. Nothing about the millions of North koreans that are zombified in the tunnels. Nothing about the Battle of Yonkers. Nothing about the airforce pilot having to make it through zombie territory after ejecting. Nothing about how the plan the saved the world came from a South African Apartheid Government plan that was meant to save the minority whites in SA from the majority blacks in the 70s and 80s, and how the same plan to save the few from the many was used against the zombies. Nothing from the book, apart from a couple of things here and there such as the Israeli awareness of the threat due to the harsh lessons from the 6 Day War when they found out saying something is 'impossible' can be dangerous for a small country.

The movie seriously messed up.

My theory is there are too many Chiefs in Hollywood. They get a great script and being that Hollywood is mostly run by liberals with mutant super-know-it-all sociopathic egos, they *all* have to put their 2 cents in until the script is re-written so many times it’s just an absolute mess. I don’t think anyway has absolute control over a movie in Hollywood no matter how big their name is. And being that most of them are cocaine fanatics they probably sit around and say “yes” to everything no matter how ridiculous. I mean seriously, how hard is it to make a good movie? You have the script and the story boards drawn out well before one shot is taken, so they must know well in advance what the movie is going to be like, yet they still turn out utter crap. How does that happen? I think it’s the Chief theory: All these idiots add their two cents as the movie is being filmed.