Brad's zombie movie is under attack - The Sun

BRAD PITT is used to saving the world and getting the girl without a bead of perspiration troubling his forehead.

But the Hollywood megastar is sweating over the biggest gamble of his career. Next month he will find out if he has made the biggest movie flop of all time.

As I reported here last year, the making of his zombie blockbuster World War Z has been just as disastrous off-screen as the zombie apocalypse on it.

The script has undergone numerous rewrites by several top screenwriters, Pitt is said to have had an almighty fall-out with director MARC FORSTER and the release date has been delayed by more than six months.

They even filmed then scrapped a hugely expensive 12-minute battle scene they planned as the climax to the movie and replaced it with a brand new ending with less action and more emotion.

Some estimates suggest the planned £80million budget for the movie has doubled.

It has become one of the biggest Hollywood gambles of all time — and Brad is all-in.

As well as starring as a UN employee travelling the globe after the zombie apocalypse, his company Plan B are producing the film.

And movie experts are predicting the film — an adaptation of the 2006 MAX BROOKS novel — will have to take in more than £260million at the box office to break even once marketing and other costs are totted up.

That's a lot for a flesh-eating zombie film — which are normally something of an acquired taste.

A Hollywood insider said: "When people first started talking about this film almost five years ago, it was tipped to become the first zombie film to win an Oscar.

BRAD PITT traverses the world in a race against time to stop a Zombie pandemic that threatens humanity

"Since then it's probably been subject to more bad-mouthing around Hollywood than any other film of this scale.

"Brad's production company Plan B Entertainment have made some great films — but they have never tried making anything on this scale before. The pressure is really on."

But there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel for Brad and the other movie executives who have so much invested in the film.

Last week some carefully selected, influential Hollywood insiders were shown the finished film in order to get their take on the final cut.

It is hoped if people start hearing about the film itself, rather than all the problems behind the scenes, a huge flop could be averted.

The reaction was perhaps the most shocking thing to happen in the turbulent process converting this popular novel into a big-screen blockbuster.

They said it was pretty good.