Paramount's previously announced World War Z movie is officially moving ahead with Brad Pitt to return as hero Gerry Lane.
According to Deadline, All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave director Edward Berger is set to helm the pic. British playwright Dennis Kelley will pen the script. Paramount announced the sequel in 2025, citing it as a top priority for the studio.
The 2013 sci-fi action thriller, based on the bestselling Max Brooks novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, sees a deadly virus break out across the globe and turn humankind into zombies. It's up to former United Nations investigator Gerry (Pitt) to search for a cure. Marc Forster directs from a screenplay penned by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, and Damon Lindelof. The cast includes Peter Capaldi, Ruth Negga, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, and Matthew Fox.
The movie grossed $540 million against a budget of $269 million, making it Pitt's highest-grossing movie as a lead next to the Oscar-winning F1.
David Fincher was previously attached to direct the sequel, and planned to focus on the origin of the virus in a way that he compared to HBO's The Last of Us. "Well, it was a little like The Last of Us," Fincher told GQ. "In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite… they used it in their title sequence, and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show."
World War Z 2 does not yet have a release date. For more upcoming movies, check out our list of movie release dates.
