Paramount promotes 'World War Z' with ... a plush toy?

By Nicole Sperling

June 18, 2013 12 AM PT

This post has been updated. See bottom for details.

Nothing says epic zombie movie like a plush mouse in overalls.

At least that’s the premise the marketing people at Paramount seem to have hatched when they agreed to have Jazwares Inc. construct a batch of talking stuffed dolls to coincide with the Brad Pitt starrer “World War Z,” which opens Friday.

It’s soft. It’s cuddly. It will count to 12 with you when the world is about to end....

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Called Subway Sam, the doll is the playmate to Pitt’s character’s youngest daughter in the film, played by Sterling Jerins. There are glimpses of the doll in the movie’s trailer — she sleeps with him, carries him around. He clearly serves as her security blanket.

And though the child seems to serve as a catalyst for Pitt’s character’s actions — “Daddy, what’s martial law?” is the first line of the trailer — this film, with its plane crashes, massive zombie infestations and all that end-of-the-world talk, is certainly no kid flick.

Perhaps it’s one of those ironic promotional tools, to go along with the 6-inch action figures the toy company has also manufactured for the PG-13-rated film directed by Marc Forster. (There’s even a zombie version of Pitt’s character.)

Pitt could use a bit of cloning. The A-lister has been globe-trotting in recent weeks, showing up everywhere from “Good Morning America” to Vanity Fair to some recent pop-up screenings in Los Angeles to get the word out on this flick, which he also produced.

An earlier version of this story misidentified the company Jazwares as Jazware.

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