When former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family get stuck in urban gridlock, he senses that it’s no ordinary traffic jam. His suspicions are confirmed when, suddenly, the city erupts into chaos.
A lethal virus, spread through a single bite, is turning healthy people into something vicious, unthinking and feral. As the pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gerry leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection and, with luck, a way to halt its spread.
Director: Marc Forster
Production Designer: Nigel Phelps
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Starring: Brad Pitt
Locations: Cornwall, London, Glasgow, UK, Malta & Budapest
Location Brief: Replicating US present-day locations across the UK – Philadelphia streets and Supermarket, Aircraft carrier ship, Israel streets & New York projects etc.
Location Focus: Marc Forster’s Global Staging of World War Z
Directed by Marc Forster — known for his diverse work on films like Monster’s Ball, Quantum of Solace, and Finding Neverland — World War Z is a sprawling, high-stakes thriller that demanded a diverse range of locations to bring its apocalyptic vision to life. Produced by Paramount Pictures, the film’s scale and ambition required meticulous planning and creative location work.
Filmed across the UK, Malta, and Budapest, the production transformed these sites into convincingly authentic stand-ins for key US and other country locations. We transformed the streets of Glasgow into the chaotic setting of Philadelphia’s opening zombie ambush, capturing the tension and urgency of that pivotal scene. Off the coast of Cornwall, we commandeered an RAF aircraft carrier to serve as the imposing warship featured in the film’s high-stakes naval sequences.
Production Designer Nigel Phelps — whose credits include Pearl Harbor, Troy, and the Transformers series — played a crucial role in transforming these locations with intricate set dressing and practical effects, crafting a believable world ravaged by a global zombie outbreak.
Here are some of my original location scout photo’s for the film:
Film Trailer:
