Co-writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have confirmed they will return to take point on Zombieland 2, with the sequel now finally beginning to take shape at Sony.
Wernick and Reese, who recently helped craft Deadpool with director Tim Miller, featured on AMC’s Geeking Out with Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg (via Comic Book), and it was here that the screenwriting duo offered up some early details about pre-production on the apocalyptic follow-up, not to mention that famous Bill Murray cameo from the cult original.
First and foremost, though, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have now officially enlisted for Zombieland 2 and will soon begin coordinating with the core cast and, in particular, director David Callaham: “That is breaking news that we’re on Zombieland 2 right now. We’re sitting with Woody [Harrelson] tomorrow and are going to sort of walk him through some of the stuff we want to do. All the cast is pretty excited.”
Before recruiting Bill Murray for the scene-stealing bit-part, Wernick and Reese went on to reveal that the Zombieland script was originally designed so that Patrick Swayze could cameo as a former Hollywood A-lister. Sadly, Swayze fell sick right around the time that Zombieland was in active production, leading Sony to auction the part off to a whole host of stars including Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Bacon, Mark Hamill, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. That list was whittled down pretty quickly, eventually leading to Bill Murray playing himself in the cult 2009 hit.
Sony has officially set the wheels in motion for Zombieland 2. Woody Harrelson seems to be in line for a return, but will he be joined by Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Scream Queens star Abigail Breslin? Time will tell.
