After speculation several months ago, what seemed unlikely has become reality: David Fincher will direct the World War Z sequel.
Variety had the report earlier this evening. It says that while the project hasn’t been greenlit yet, and was at one time completely removed from Paramounts upcoming slate of films, the studio and CEO Jim Gianopulos “looks to be moving forward” with the sequel to the maligned 2013 film.
It’s certainly an odd pairing given that Fincher is one of the Hollywood auteurs whose vision typically doesn’t gel with big-budget studio productions like this. Fincher hasn’t made a sequel since the bad time he had with Alien 3, and taking on a sequel to an original film he had nothing to do with now that he is well established is a strange move. That being said, Brad Pitt is still set to star.
Pitt and Fincher have worked together with great success in the past, having teamed up for Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which earned Pitt an Oscar nomination. The notoriously difficult director and the star clearly have some sort of solid relationship, and Pitt’s involvement was probably the driving force behind Fincher’s decision to hop on board.
When the rumors of this began percolating several months ago, I argued that David Fincher, while not an obvious choice for this type of movie, might be the exact thing a World War Z sequel needs to succeed where the original failed. Pitt and director Marc Forster had a notoriously poor relationship on the first film, as the plot pivoted from the book’s geopolitical expanse to focus more on Pitt’s character and lean into the horror. Perhaps Fincher will bring some character to the franchise, which was generic at best.
Either way, it should make for some interesting discourse whenever the World War Z sequel gets up and running.
