Considering Hollywood’s undying lust for remakes, sequels, and franchises, you’d think a sequel to the surprise 2009 hitZombieland would be a no-brainer that would have been greenlit years ago. And it’s not for a lack of trying from the people behind the original Zombieland film. Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have stated they’d love to do several sequels. Yet the closest we’ve ever come to any new quests for a mythical Twinkie is a failed pilot for TV show on Amazon’s streaming service.
But don’t give up on Zombieland 2 just yet. While promoting their new science fiction horror romp Life, Reese and Wernick were asked about the status of another Zombieland and gave a pretty upbeat and positive sounding answer.
“It is [in active development],” Wernick told ComicBook.com. “We’re trying to get it going. All of our cast have read the script and love it. Zombieland director Reuben Fleischer is signed on. It’s just a matter of making our cast deals and making it for a budget number. All the cast have become superstars now so, we made Zombieland with 20 million, so it’s trying to fit that financial model into the sequel model so it makes sense for the studio and being able to pay the actors what they now get paid and deserve to paid.”
That could definitely be a big sticking point, considering Emma Stone is just the hottest actress in the universe right now and both Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson aren’t exactly hurting for work either. But you know whose star has also been rising? Those of writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who were instrumental in getting Deadpool made and ensuring it didn’t suck.
“We see [Sony Pictures chairman] Tom Rothman pretty frequently now and we’re pestering that dude,” Rhett said. “He’s like ‘Please, enough with the Zombieland talk!’ We’re pestering him the way we pestered Fox on Deadpool. We’re not letting it go. We really want to see Zombieland 2.”
It really is a license to print money. We suppose the only question is whether it will print money for Sony or for Emma and Jesse and Woody. As fans, we don’t really care where the money goes so long as the damn thing finally gets made.
