Released in 2013, World War Z is the most expensive zombie movie ever made. It’s also the highest-grossing with $540M globally. After more than a decade of false starts, a sequel is finally coming together with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger and, surprisingly, a return from Brad Pitt.
Deadline confirms that Paramount has inked deals with Berger and Pitt for World War Z 2, with a script by Utopia writer Dennis Kelly. The original movie was based, very loosely, on Max Brooks’ acclaimed epistolary novel, an oral history of a world overrun by a zombie outbreak. In truth, the movie barely resembles Brooks’ book at all other than the title.
Plot details on the sequel are under wraps for now.
World War Z was a huge hit, but also one of the most tortured productions in recent memory. There were massive rewrites and a third act that was completed dropped in order to make it more of an action movie. As for the sequel, Pitt tried for years to get it done with his pal David Fincher (who he’ll work with on The Further Adventures of Cliff Booth), and it nearly happened in 2019 until the Chinese government banned movies with zombies.
Berger follows up Conclave and Ballad of a Small Player with this World War Z sequel, finally landing the franchise film he’s been eyeing for months. He’s also attached to a new Jason Bourne movie that will have to go on the back burner.
