Paramount Reportedly Kills World War Z Sequel

Paramount Pictures has reportedly put a bullet in the head of the sequel to zombie action-drama World War Z. The Playlist reports that the studio pulled the plug on the sequel in a decision made Tuesday night.

According to the outlet, the studio had issues with the budget, but not to the level that would necessarily warrant cancelling a film that was gearing up for production. Fincher was seeking a budget below the original’s $190 million and the studio was aware of the budget for months. It is intimated that the film may have been a casualty of resources going into the next two Mission: Impossible films, which are set for release in 2021 and 2022. Paramount makes far less films than the other major studios, and resource allocation may have been an issue here.

The World War Z sequel also took a long time to get off the ground, as a search had to be made for a director to replace Marc Forster and Fincher was busy with other projects. However, the film was planning to shoot this summer once Fincher finished editing season two of Netflix’s Mindhunter. Brad Pitt is apparently not happy about the film being pulled, according to the report.