Paramount Moving Ahead With 'World War Z' Sequel

Over the past few weeks, Brad Pitt has been cautiously optimistic about a potential sequel to his new zombie film, World War Z. He knows there's more story to tell and more parts of Max Brooks' novel to explore, but he was unsure about how the public would embrace the film.

Well, after a $112 million opening weekend ($66 million in the US and $46 million international), which is also the biggest of Pitt's career, Paramount has decided to move forward on a sequel to World War Z.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the potential sequel, quoting Paramount's vice chairman Rob Moore as saying they've begun actively developing the film. There was no specific news on how they were moving forward, just that the wheels had begun turning. So if the film continues to make money like it did over this weekend, we'll likely hear about a new screenwriter in the coming weeks. Then, if the script works, things would move on from there.

Again, this all hinges on the film continuing to well in a very crowded Summer. It has lots of competition coming up over the next few weeks. But studios like to get moving as quickly as possible just in case things go well.

While the first film wraps up in a pretty satisfying way, it's definitely not tied with a bow. There are plenty of zombies left and plenty of ways for humans to be killed by them. Heck, if they made a second or even third film, they might actually get to Brooks' original conceit, which was a series of different vignettes looking back on how people survived the invasion. I think that would make a great third film in the trilogy.

There are lots of hurdles before that, though. Are you excited about a potential World War Z sequel?