Before it was outright canceled, the sequel to the zombie-apocalypse blockbuster WORLD WAR Z was in a perpetual state of production hell, with directors coming and going, and production starts and release dates being constantly pushed back. Development of the sequel was at its most awesomely bizarre when David Fincher (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, GONE GIRL) was attached to direct, but things officially were made dead and buried earlier this year. Star Brad Pitt says that’s a shame, because what the director had in mind certainly would’ve blown our brains out (thus making a lovely meal for the zombies).
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Pitt is hot on the press tour for his new movie AD ASTRA (in theaters today) when he was asked by Collider about what Fincher had planned for WWZ2. “We had really good story, which he shepherded, really strong story,” Pitt said. “The things he had planned for it just hadn’t been seen yet. I’m sure he’ll get it out on something else.”
Fincher was brought on board as the director in 2017, and production was set to start that next year. However, that was pushed back with Fincher was deep in making the new season of Netflix’s MINDHUNTER. With filming set to begin June of this year, the project was canceled earlier this February, with sources telling THR it was in large part due to the Chinese government banning movies that featured zombies or ghosts. With a budget at about $200 million, the movie would need the help of the second-largest movie market in the world, and without that, it would be too difficult to recoup that cost.
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The first 2013 movie also had a rocky road to release, but when it came out it ended up making over $200 million domestically and $540 million worldwide, which made it, far and away, the biggest zombie movie ever. That just about made the $200-$250 million price tag worth it, but clearly not enough to give Paramount confidence in a sequel, even with a director like Fincher behind the camera and Pitt back to star.
Indeed it is a shame we won't get to see the director's vision brought to life, because of course I want to see what Fincher does with $200 million-worth of zombie action. I mean, there's also the stuff Pitt said about there being a great story and all, but come on, just think of how Fincher would've brought the zombie apocalypse to the big screen. Now we will never know, and I guess we'll have to settle for, I don't know, the third season of MINDHUNTER. Alright, that's good too, I guess.
AD ASTRA is in theaters now.