It's finally happening. After more than a decade of false starts, Paramount has closed deals with Brad Pitt to star and Edward Berger to direct the sequel to “World War Z.” Dennis Kelly ("Utopia") is writing the screenplay.
Plot details, naturally, are locked in a vault. The 2013 original, adapted loosely (and I do mean loosely) from Max Brooks' 2006 oral history novel, grossed around $540M worldwide despite a production so notoriously troubled that its entire third act was thrown out and reshot.
I'm sure many here already know that Pitt spent years trying to convince David Fincher, his longtime friend and collaborator, to take the sequel. That version got very close to shooting before the budget epically ballooned, and Fincher exited. Paramount shelved it. Pitt never let it go.
"World War Z" followed Gerry Lane (Pitt), a former United Nations investigator pulled out of retirement when a fast-moving viral outbreak turns its victims into sprinting zombies within seconds of infection. With civilization collapsing in a matter of days, Lane is dispatched on a globe-spanning race to trace the pathogen back to its source.
The fact that a true sequel never materialized remains one of Paramount’s bigger missed opportunities—especially in an era now dominated by long-running IP—making the property ripe for revival under Berger.
Berger actually comes to this straight off wrapping "The Riders," the A24 movie starring Pitt. Deadline's sources say the shoot went so well that both men were actively looking for a second project, and that's when Pitt started pitching Berger on 'World War Z,' hammering the point that he'd be "perfect" for it. Whether this is Berger’s actual next film remains to be seen — he’s supposed to shoot a Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, next year.
It's a genuinely interesting choice. Berger, the director of "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," has spent the last few years looking for a blockbuster franchise to hop onboard, circling Ocean's 14, James Bond 26 and Bourne — the latter of which he's apparently still attached to. He's finally settled on "World War Z," and whether he's the right fit for this kind of material is anybody's guess.
Cregger himself pinpoints that “2001: A Space Odyssey” was an inspiration on “The Flood,” although he steers clear from directly comparing it to Kubrick’s masterpiece.