If you were Brad Pitt, and you were forced to battle a global zombie epidemic, who would you want at your side? Well, Paramount Pictures has chosen The Pacific's James Badge Dale as Pitt's sidekick in the apocalyptic thriller World War Z, based on the popular novel by Max Brooks.

James Badge Dale will play an American soldier who is the first to report this planet-consuming zombie epidemic to government officials. Brad Pitt is playing a U.N. Postwar Commissions researcher tasked with finding a cure for the human race ten years after the disease has infected Earth.

World War Z will head into production later this year.