This is shades of I Am Legend all over again. A great book, with a plot that would be perfect for a big screen adaptation. Except for the fact that Hollywood has taken that plot and thrown it into the trash.

It seems that World War Z, which will star Brad Pitt and be directed by Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace“), may be very different from the best-selling book by Max Brooks.

The novel charts a U.N. worker’s accounts of oral histories of a decade-long zombie war. The movie will now take place as the zombie world war is breaking out when there is still time to stop it. This is completely different from the book.

There had been reports that this atypical monster tale would certainly be a challenge to put into film. But it appears Paramount will make a typical zombie/monster movie anyway.

The movie plot revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.

Brad Pitt has just arrived in Glasgow to begin filming the monster-war movie. The massive enterprise includes a cast and crew of 1,200, fake sets that remake the U.K. city into “war-torn” Philadelphia, and plenty of locals to play undead extras. He has already shot scenes in Malta, sitting in for Israel.

I read the book a few years ago and was thrilled to hear it was being turned into a movie. I will still see the movie, but my excitement about it has certainly dipped.

World War Z is set to open on December 21, 2012.