Brad Pitt to attend Seoul premiere of ‘World War Z’

Hollywood actor Brad Pitt is scheduled to attend Tuesday’s Seoul premiere of his latest film “World War Z,” according to the movie’s local distributor Lotte Entertainment.

Pitt, whose last visit to Korea was in 2011 upon the local release of his baseball flick “Moneyball,” is to attend a red carpet event on Tuesday evening at Cheonggye Plaza in central Seoul.

It is not certain if his partner, actress Angelina Jolie, who accompanied Pitt during the European promotional tour of the film last week, will also attend the Seoul premiere, Lotte Entertainment said. The London premiere of “World War Z” on June 2 was Jolie’s first public appearance since disclosing last month that she had undergone a prophylactic double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer.

“We’ve asked Jolie to attend (the Seoul premiere),” said Jeong Seong-yeop from Lotte Entertainment. “We have not heard from them yet. But we think it’s likely that Jolie will join Pitt for the event, as she’s been accompanying him in Europe.”

The film, a terrifying zombie thriller, is directed by Marc Forster and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan. Pitt is playing Garry Lane, a former United Nations employee who travels the world to find a way to stop the zombie pandemic that is destroying the Earth.

The movie is a film adaption of American author Max Brooks’ 2006 apocalyptic horror novel of the same title. Pitt’s own film production company, Plan B Entertainment, famously went through a bidding war in 2007 against Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way to secure the screen rights to the original novel.

Korea is the only Asian country that Pitt is visiting as part of the ongoing promotional tour for the movie, Lotte Entertainment said. The 49-year-old, however, will not hold a press conference during his visit.

Jolie, on the other hand, last visited Seoul in 2010 to promote her thriller “Salt” in which she played a Russian double agent working for the CIA. The two raise six children together.

“World War Z” hits local theaters on June 20.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)