Framestore Talks World War Z

World War Z hit cinema screens last week, bringing with it a new kind of zombie, one born in the depths of Framestore's Art Department long before being let lose on the world.

 

The Brad Pitt blockbuster features the undead as you've never seen them before – moving in a distinctive, destructive wave of bodies that can scale the highest walls and bring down flying helicopters.

Framestore's Art Department developed the concepts for the film's zombies and their unique style of movement during an 18 month visual development period working, directly with Marc Foster, Plan B and Paramount Pictures.

 

The department also helped imagine many of the movie's key scenes, such as the Jerusalem gate takeover, years before production even started, and you can see from the final shots just how much production and post production were influenced by Framestore's designs.

 

"From the very early stages of script development, my team and I pitched to Marc Foster and Paramount an idea of how to re-imagine the visual look of zombies. We knew it would be hard to re-design a zombie, so we didn't. Instead, we designed the mass of zombies: the way they moved together, the way they flocked and flowed, the way they ran, made towers out of their bodies, and even talked about the way they bit." 

 

"As we release concept art, you can see the influence we had on the script and the design of the set pieces. We'd like to thank Marc Foster, Andy Jones, and all those who supported us and our ideas on this movie."

 

The Art department has worked on more than 50 films in the past three years, including visual development for War Horse, Lincoln, Dredd 3D, Iron Man 3, 47 Ronin, Wrath of the Titans, Zero Dark Thirty and summer release RIPD. It is currently working on All You Need is Kill, Jupiter Ascending and Dracula.

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present in association with Hemisphere Media Capital and GK Films a Plan B Entertainment / 2DUX² production.

Production Company Paramount Picutres
Director Marc Forster
Producers Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner & Ian Bryce 

Concept Art Framestore
Art Director & Lead Concept Artist Kevin Jenkins
Concept Artists Jason Horley, Daren Horley, Joseph McLamb, Dave Early & Martin Macrae