Brad Pitt and World War Z enlisted Brit rockers Muse to help launch their zombie thriller film in London over the weekend, with Pitt explaining that they were aiming for the band to invoke the spirit of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells – which became the theme song for notorious horror The Exorcist.

“We’ve got Muse here tonight helping us unleash the film … from our point of view when we started making this film a couple of years ago we discussed trying to find a Tubular Bells which, if you remember, is the theme song from The Exorcist. It wasn’t written for The Exorcist, The Exorcist appropriated it and then it became the theme song. We wanted to find something that had that same kind of feeling” Pitt told Associated press. Talking about why they were launching the movie in London, the actor commented “It’s an international hub, it’s where we filmed it. A lot of our extras which were so important to the film are here, the crews and it’s where we started.”

A packed crowd attended the premiere, and Pitt said he was thrilled with the reaction from the fans – even if the critics haven’t been so kind. “It’s such big summer fun and it’s so much fun for us to see people enjoying it this way” he said. “That means as design we’ve done something right, and it was our gut feeling. We could feel it happening. We’re thrilled, we think it’s a great summer entry, we think people are going to have just the best time with it – and it is the most intense film of the summer.”

Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt at the London premiere of World War Z

Muse
Muse at the World War Z London premiere