(Photo: Columbia Pictures)
Few Hollywood stars, past or present, have a career as consistently impressive as Brad Pitt’s. The acclaimed actor and producer has expertly combined his handsome screen presence with his versatile acting talents to bring to life classics such as Fight club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ocean’s Eleven And Inglourious Basterds, to name just a few. Although acting has always been Pitt’s greatest passion, he has aspired to work on both sides of the camera from a young age.
In 1986, when Pitt was 22 years old, he was invited to speak to Tiger bit for one of his first interviews. “In ten years I’ll be 32,” Pitt calculated. “I hope I’m married to some Brad Jr. I would love to be in Kevin Costner’s position. He is at the top and respected as an actor. I just want to be a respected actor. I want people to feel the same way I feel when I go to the movies. I’d like to have my own production company.”
By 1996, Pitt had surpassed his wildest dreams, playing countless roles in acclaimed and commercially significant films. Recalling his youthful dreams, Pitt founded Plan B Entertainment with Brad Gray, Kristin Hahn and Jennifer Aniston in 2001 and has since become a prolific producer.
Although Pitt is best known as an actor, Pitt received his first Oscar for his work as a producer in 12 years of slaverywhich won the Best Picture award in 2014. Pitt’s second Oscar win followed eight years later, when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Among Pitt’s well-known works, of course, there are a couple of unsuccessful ones. The actor famously had a tough time working on the 1994 film. Interview with a Vampirebut despite Pitt’s disappointment, he flourished both financially and critically.
The actor became somewhat disillusioned in recent years while filming Marc Forster’s 2013 zombie film. World War Z. Pitt was initially very enthusiastic about the project, but felt the film was let down by its ending.
“It was just terrible,” Pitt said of the original version in an interview with the magazine USA today. “You see the first shots and you think, ‘Oh, this is everything you want and more.’ It works on certain levels that you didn’t even realize were there when you were filming it. Like, I had this feeling when I saw Moneyball. But here the exact opposite happened.”
Pitt explained in more detail that Forster’s original version deviated from the storyline of Max Brooks’ book of the same name. In response, Pitt, who also co-produced the film, persistently asked some of his friends, including writer Damon Lindelof, to help him get the script back on track.
The production team ultimately cut several scenes and filmed several more to make the film more faithful to Forster’s story. “And what happens is you go, ‘Uh…’ And you’re exhausted for the rest of the day (and) the next day. And then after that you say, “Okay, we need to go back there.” We have to take this thing apart and make it work,” Pitt added.
Final version World War Z received widespread acclaim from both moviegoers and critics and grossed over $540 million against a production budget of $190 million, making it the highest-grossing zombie film of all time. Watch the trailer below.
