Brad Pitt has been toying with the idea of starring in the zombie movie World War Z for almost half a decade. It’s been stalled out at his production company for what seems like forever, with a script adapted from the same-named book by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. Now they’re doing something with it.

The news comes from MTV where they say the whole thing is moving forward with Pitt, officially attached to star. The news comes straight from World War Z’s author Max Brooks, which makes the whole thing seem pretty credible. He says Paramount pictures is targeting it for a Summer 2012 release and that Marc Forster is still directing it.

So what’s it about? World War Z is 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. It’s a post-apocalyptic zombie movie, don’t we pretty much know what we’re in for? They’ll put their own spin on it, but it’s a pretty well mined genre. The big difference here is that this may be the first zombie movie to really land an A-list star. Zombies are moving up in the world, they’re the new superheroes.