New Writer Enlisted for ‘World War Z’ Sequel with Brad Pitt

The sequel to 2013’s summer box office hit World War Z has acquired new writer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Scribe Dennis Kelly, creator of British TV’s action thriller Utopia, will write the latest draft, taking over from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (Burnt, Pawn Sacrifice).

Based on Max Brooks’ acclaimed novel of the same name, Marc Forster’s World War Z starred megastar producer-actor and Academy award winner Brad Pitt as a U.N. employee racing against time to stop a Zombie pandemic that threatened to destroy humanity. The film ended with the promise of containment. The storyline for the sequel has been kept under wraps.

Pitt is on board for Paramount’s World War Z 2. J.A. Bayona (The Impossible) is currently on board to direct, however with rumors that he is being courted to helm Universal’s Jurassic World 2, his involvement may be tenuous. Hopefully this does not signal a repeat of the original feature’s production woes, which saw extensive re-writes, expensive re-shoots and acrimony over the final cut.

Kelly’s Utopia is about a small group of people who meet online and stumble across a mysterious graphic novel – The Utopia Experiments – which may have predicted the worst disasters of the last century. David Fincher (House of Cards) and Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl) were collaborating on a U.S. remake of the series for HBO, but the deal fell apart over budget concerns. HBO still owns the U.S. remake rights.

World War Z 2 is scheduled for release on June 9, 2017. Pitt is producing along with Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Ian Bryce and Skydance’s David Ellison.