We’ve been seeing some interesting news and behind-the-scenes footage for Paramount Pictures’ film adaptation of Max Brook’s novel, World War Z, including the casting of David Morse (The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Treme), the production losing guns in a SWAT raid in Budapest, and eye candy- spy material of action sequences. But stepping back to look at the big picture of the film, could World War Z be a film franchise for its star Brad Pitt?

In a recent interview with the LA Times, it was indicated that the adaptation this zombie apocalypse novel was thought of by director Marc Forster and Paramount Pictures as a trilogy for Pitt describing it as such:

“Forster and Paramount Pictures each view World War Z as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of, say, Damon’s Jason Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC’s The Walking Dead.”

Indeed, World War Z is a change of pace for Pitt. He says that he likes to keeps things unpredictable:

“Like I said, I like mixing it up.  You need to make it interesting for yourself to make it interesting for other people.”

Paramount will likely make the call of making World War Z a trilogy based on the box office performance of the film that comes out in the holiday season this year. Pitt drives the project with his company, Plan B Entertainment.

World War Z stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, a worker at the United Nations Post-War Commission, 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. The film also stars Mireille Enos (The Killing) as Pitt’s character’s wife, Daniella Kertesz in her feature film debut, James Badge Dale (The Departed) and Matthew Fox (Lost). World War Z is directed by Marc Forster with script was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (State of Play).

World War Z is slated to hit theaters on December 21, 2012.