Paramount Studios announced on Friday that the sequel to Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' will hit theatres on June 9, 2017. It's the same day Fox releases its 'Fantastic Four' comic book reboot, starring Miles Teller and Kate Mara.
Typically, big summer blockbusters tend to avoid each other during opening weekends - quite a risk for both films. The film's screenwriter, Steve Knight, revealed in an interview that 'World War Z 2' is going to hit the reset button. "Why not? What fun. It's not quite like the other, we're starting with clean slate. When they've signed off we're on." Knight adds.
This means the sequel won't necessarily pick-up where Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt's character) left off, after the first film. In 'World War Z' a zombie plague threatened to wipe out the human population. Lane, a United Nations investigator, travelled the world to find the cure, and humanity was saved.
It has been confirmed that Pitt is still producing the movie, and will still take on the lead role. However, the main plot is not yet revealed. It's going to be directed by J. A. Bayona, who was behind the 2007 suspense 'The Orphanage' and 2012 survival film 'The Impossible'.
'World War Z 2' is expected to follow the original book by Max Brooks, after the first movie didn't use scenarios described from the book at all. The question is, where will the new movie take us? Paramount Pictures also secured the rights to Brooks' survival guide, as well as its spin-off comic 'The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks'.
Despite some critical response, the first franchise earned $540 million worldwide, tripling its $190 million production budget. Brad Pitt is known to release two other movies, 'The Audition' and 'By the Sea', which is said to be a comeback movie opposite his wife, Angelina Jolie.
Join the Conversation