In what amounts to the least surprising news in the history of premature movie release dates, Paramount has pulled Brad Pitt’s World War Z sequel from its release schedule — along with the latest Friday the 13th reboot from producer Michael Bay and his company Platinum Dunes.
World War Z 2 had been slated to hit theaters on June 9, which would’ve been ambitious seeing as it hasn’t started filming yet and still doesn’t officially have a director. David Fincher had been in negotiations to take the reins of the sequel — which would reunite him with Pitt following Se7en and Fight Club — but a deal has yet to be announced by Paramount, prompting speculation that it might never happen. After all, the first film barely broke even despite grossing $540 million worldwide.
Likewise, expect Paramount to push Friday the 13th another six months to April 2018, which is the next Friday the 13th on the calendar. The latest film will mark the 13th entry in the fright franchise, so Paramount wants to take the time to get it right. The studio was given rights to the iconic horror series as part of the deal that saw Paramount allow Warner Bros. to board Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar as a co-producer.
In other news, Paramount announced it will be giving Friday the 13th‘s old release date to Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, a thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer.
With World War Z 2 moving out of summer movie season, Paramount is left with Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight, the latter of which was upstaged at the Super Bowl by trailers for Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Universal’s The Fate of the Furious.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
