A global star on the bill, an “outrageous” sum for a horror film that became a box-office success: a sequel was supposed to happen but never saw the light of day. A look back at the (short) story of “World War Z”.
Horror has proven to be a real goldmine in recent years: after all, films of the genre are often produced relatively cheaply, but with a clever plot and a punchy marketing campaign, they can attract a lot of people to the cinema.
There are exceptions to the “little money, big return” rule, however, such as World War Z (2013), which instead relied on the “big money, big return” principle. With a budget of $190 million – making it the most expensive horror film of all time – and its $540.5 million box office revenue, the Brad Pitt-starring film went down in cinematic history as by far the highest-grossing zombie film of all time.
The feature film tells the story of how a deadly pandemic gradually but rapidly turns the world's population into bloodthirsty zombies. Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), a UN employee, must not only get his family to safety, but also find an antidote to stop the spread of the virus – a race against time begins, after all, he himself is at risk of becoming a living dead…
In his film, director Marc Forster (Quantum Of Solace) focuses mainly on the grandeur of the spectacle. No time for social reflections or too bloody violence: this is why the feature film received in the United States the age classification PG-13, unusual for a zombie film – a classification that certainly also helped its success at the box office, broadening its audience.
Given this success, it was impossible not to imagine a sequel. Plans for a sequel were therefore quickly drawn up. Initially, director Juan Antonio Bayona was supposed to direct the second part before David Fincher became interested in the project with his Brad Pitt very familiar. Of course, many fans would have liked to see what the filmmaker, known primarily for his dark thrillers, would have brought to the story – and whether the level of violence would have skyrocketed under his watch.
Paramount Pictures
Unfortunately, we will (maybe?) never know: for various reasons, these plans did not come to fruition even more than 10 years later, the reasons ranging from creative differences to production cost issues. And yet, even Brad Pitt wanted a sequel!
Besides, the original ending of the film (different from the one seen in the cinema) could have saved the saga: find out how here. Moreover, even if the ending we saw brought a solution and hope, there were still things to do to win the war against the zombies.
However, in an interview with GQ last year, David Fincher has once again teased a potential sequel, leaving fans hoping that something might happen – there would still be “some conversations” on this subject. Where will they lead? Only time will tell.
World War Z is available to watch again in streaming on Prime Video.