Back in September came the news that actor Brad Pitt and “Conclave” filmmaker Edward Berger had signed on for the long-gestating sequel to 2013’s global zombie action feature “World War Z” at Paramount Pictures.
The original film was a major commercial success, pulling in $540 million to become the highest-grossing zombie film of all time, but attempts at a sequel had seemingly stalled in development – usually over budget concerns.
Things changed back at CinemaCon when Paramount announced that a sequel was again in the works. Now, Berger has spoken about the sequel while appearing on the Screen Off Script podcast (via The Playlist) at a film festival in Mallorca, Spain.
He says despite his hiring, the film isn’t set yet but they are doing their best to get everything lined up and a lot depends on the script:
“We’re working on it, we’re working hard on it. We don’t want to disappoint the fans. We only want to bring something to the fans and to this idea that really furthers the story and the movie and really creates something new and can say something about our time. That’s definitely a commercial big film, you know, and we’d love to bring it to the screen”
Dennis Kelly, who worked on David Fincher’s abandoned version of the film, is writing the screenplay but it’s not clear how much (if any) of the draft for Fincher’s version has survived.
Berger is currently in post-production on “The Riders,” his first teaming with Pitt, and he seemed to be impressed with the actor:
“It’s a wonderful process because I get to see him on screen, him and Coco Greenstone, who plays his daughter, on screen every day. And they’re wonderful actors, and I learn, again, I learn from Brad so much, how much he gave to the movie, how much he gave to this performance. He’s not a movie star who walks off set and says, ‘I’m done.’ He stays there with his fellow actors.”
In recent years, Berger was also attached to direct the next James Bond film at one point until Denis Villeneuve took on the job. Berger says he’s still got his hand up to direct a Bond film if the franchise stewards will allow it: “James Bond, I’ve been a lifelong fan, and if they ever decided that they needed a director, that I could be a director that suited the films, I’m incredibly passionate about it.”
