Paramount Pictures has picked up the rights to another zombie property. This time it’s the screen rights to a novel by Max Brook (yes the son of Mel Brooks) called “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War”.

Weird. The title actually sounds like a Mel Brooks zombie movie. But don’t expect anything funny. It’s described as the sober telling of the aftermath of a war against a legion of humans inflicted with a virus that makes them hunger for flesh and walk like they’re heavily constipated. Why are zombies so hard to fight again? Sorry, that’s just never made any sense. The poor things can barely walk, let put together any sort of serious attack plan.

That hasn’t stopped Paramount from putting up a lot of money for it. Now that they have it, they’re turning World War Z over to Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B to produce. Variety says they only got the rights after winning a bidding war for the book with Leo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company, which probably means that Max Brooks is now even more rich. The deal was reportedly in the high six figure range.