10 Behind-The-Scenes Movie Stories Better Than The Actual Plot
7. Hungarian Officials Thought They Were Terrorists - World War Z
World War Z made several disappointing missteps... opting for fast zombies, deviating wildly from the original novel, casting Brad Pitt. Okay, maybe the last one isn't usually a misstep, but in this case it served to complicate the production immensely.
Damon Lindelhof and Drew Goddard were brought in to do massive rewrites late in production and were given days to fix a script they claimed would take "months of work". By this time Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster were no longer on speaking terms and required a studio mediator to hold conversations. In the end, Pitt had control over the production and held the right of final approval and Forster was not brought back to direct the sequel.
Though it didn't seem to interfere with filming much, one of the more interesting stories occured whilst recording the climactic final shootout with the zombies in Russia - actually filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Dozens of assault rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles were shipped into Budapest only to be intercepted and taken by a Hungarian counter-terrorist unit who raided the production's warehouse. Apparently, someone had forgotten to get customs clearance for a small armory, and they also lied about the guns being dismantled - turns out they were fully functional.
After the Hungarian investigators couldn't identify who was to blame to hold criminally liable, they dropped the charges.