Maintaining its distance from other survivor-based zombie movies, scribe Michael Straczynski told MTV News that his adaptation of Max Brooks’ “World War Z” will emphasize the book’s global events.

“The scale of what we’re doing here is phenomenal…it has that international feel to it” he said, giving one example: “You’re in India with hundreds of boats trying to get out of there with a tidal wave of zombies.”

He continued, saying that the first draft of the screenplay was completed in Spring and had been waiting for a director for several months before getting Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) onboard.

“Now that Marc is here, I’m working with his notes to make one final pass on the script. Our hope is to get it moving into production by the first of the year.”

Straczynski hopes that production on the film will start soon.