It seems Brad Pitt’s casting in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the 1969-set Quentin Tarantino film that’s fast beginning to take shape at Sony, has had a knock-on effect on World War Z 2.
Justin Kroll of Variety is reporting that the David Fincher sequel won’t enter production until the fall, as Tarantino’s star-studded period piece has taken precedence for Pitt and his newfound co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio. That’s a fairly significant blow to Paramount’s plan, though it’s unclear if the studio had any input on Brad Pitt’s decision, given he holds a producer credit on World War Z 2 and likely has some creative pull behind the scenes.
A delay of this magnitude will also bring the sequel’s release window into question, given it was once tentatively slated for the summer of 2019. Chances are Paramount will hold fire until later that year, or perhaps push Fincher’s zombie epic into 2020 on the belief that it needs a little more time in the oven.
And perhaps that’s for the best? It’s no secret that World War Z endured a difficult spell in front of the cameras, during which time studio meddling and extensive reshoots threatened to sink Paramount’s big-screen rendition of the Max Brooks classic. But somehow, almost inexplicably, World War Z emerged relatively unscathed, with a cracking finale that traded CG-laden spectacle for a gripping race against time set within Cardiff’s barren World Health Organization building.
Last we reported, director David Fincher had this to say about his follow-up:
We’re trying. A lot of stones have been laid. We’re just deconstructing it right now against the mythology that exists to see where we can go.
As things stand, World War Z is still in search of a release date, but we’ll be keeping you right up-to-date as the project begins to coalesce.
