Before it was released, everyone was expecting World War Z to be a mega-flop.
The budget had ballooned to over $190 million before promotions and advertising, and there was word that leading actor Brad Pitt had some problems with the movie's director Marc Foster (Quantum Of Solace).
It was bad news for anyone who had read the frankly amazing book, but for a zombie movie to cost that much money, or for their to be
soooo many reshoots tacked on at the end of the production - including a whole new third act - there wasn't much hope it would turn out even half-way decent.
Then the movie came out, and it was surprisingly good.
Not only that, but it went on to become the biggest box office hit of Pitt's career to date, making over $540 million worldwide.
In comparison, the next highest grossing zombie movie of all time would be Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which banked $312 million earlier this year.
There has long been talk of a sequel to WWZ - you can't let a money-maker like that play dead for too long - and this week, the Paramount's head honcho Jim Guanopulos was interviewed by
The Hollywood Reporter, when the sequel came up in conversation:
What's the status of the World War Z sequel?
We're in advanced development.
With David Fincher directing?
Yes. And Brad Pitt.
For those not in the know, David Fincher is the man behind modern classic such as Gone Girl, Se7en, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Zodiac.
In fact, Fincher hasn't gone near a major blockbuster since his big-screen debut back in 1992, when
his version of Alien 3 was significantly altered by the producers.
Obviously, this could all change - as the
directors of Han Solo would testify to - but for the time being, consider us VERY excited to see a zombie-action movie from the director of Fight Club.
