Fearing Chinese Censors, Paramount Changes ‘World War Z’

When executives at Paramount viewed the latest cut of the $175 million Brad Pitt zombie film "World War Z," they were not concerned by the violence or its reengineered ending. They were worried about a minor plot point that involved a sensitive topic: China.

In the offending scene, characters debate the geographic origin of an outbreak that caused a zombie apocalypse and point to China, a Paramount executive told TheWrap. Normally the detail would not have merited discussion at the top echelons of the studio. But given the fast-rising prominence of the Chinese market, state censorship and the quotas for U.S. releases, the studio advised the movie producers to drop the reference to China and cite a different country as a possible source of the pandemic, an executive with knowledge of the film told TheWrap. The change was made in recent days in the hopes of landing a deal for one of Paramount’s biggest summer movies to play in China, the world's fastest-growing film market. "It’s not a huge plot point,” an individual with knowledge of the studio’s plans told TheWrap. “But it’s safe to say [they’re] going to want a release there.”