Cult fave book "World War Z" might be dead in the water for good after it's came out that the film's huge budget is too risky for a co-financier to take a chance on in the financial climate today.
Brad Pitt's Plan B production house owns the rights and the film adaptation has been dragging it's feet for some time but this might either be a death rattle or a step in the right direction towards lowering the budget and focusing the scope rather than trying to go for a huge global setting, which is what Paramount head honcho Adam Goldman wants for the $125 million project.
You really have to ask, with so many lower budget films delivering astonishing quality nowadays is why larger studios are still willing to spend massive amounts of cash on potentially high risk projects? District 9 was made for $30 million and grossed over $200 million. Skyline (whilst i admit was terrible) had brilliant effects and only suffered from poor direction. It was made on a $15 million budget. I fail to see why this film can't do what The Fountain did when Brad Pitt left and slash it's budget in half.