‘Friday the 13th’ Reboot and ‘World War Z’ Sequel Pulled

It seems that the fickle Friday the 13th reboot has gotten the axe and the World War Z sequel is now struggling to show signs of life. There were groans about the F13 movie and whether or not another film in that franchise needed to be made. In the case of Brad Pitt’s World War Z follow-up, it looks like the first film’s troubled nature is catching up with the sequel.

For Friday the 13th, the film has struggled to find it’s legs since rumors started about the project back in 2016 and now it seems that Paramount has not only pulled it from production, but cancelled it altogether. A few years back, news of the proposed reboot had fans hopeful for a “new” and “unrelenting” Jason story. Then whispers of a found footage take on the movie were heard. At least something was starting to take off when the speculation that filming would start soon came to light. But now, unfortunately the film has died and the cause of death wasn’t by someone wearing a hockey mask. According to Variety, Paramount backed off the iconic horror franchise due to “its $21 million budget, a disappointing $13 million opening weekend for its Rings horror reboot, and looming reversion of the rights to New Line.” It appears that the studio wants to play it safe and the rocky start the film has had most likely didn’t inspire high confidence. On top of those reasons, Variety also reported:

The state of California had awarded the production a $5.6 million tax credit on Aug. 2 as part of its expanded incentive program to keep production in California. But that credit required that production would start within 180 days and that period has now run out.

The zombie-fueled World War Z sequel is looking to dodge a bullet to the head since being pulled from Paramount’s 2017 release schedule. Just like Friday the 13th, news of the studio pulling it came on Monday, much to our dismay here at Nerd Fu. However, hopes are a little higher for WWZ2 coming to fruition. It can’t hurt that the original grossed $540 million worldwide back in 2013 though the reason for the pull may not be financial. An article put out by Variety on Tuesday stated that with the pull came no new release date. Speculation is that the film will try for a 2018 or 2019 release, using the extra time for script development. But there’s even bigger news on the directing side for this sequel. It appears that a friend of Brad Pitt is very interested in helming the project. Filmmaker David Fincher is cited to be “very creatively interested in directing the movie” says a source. The hold up? Beats us. We agree with other news sites in that it seems ludicrous for Paramount to keep stalling on the project, especially with Fincher on speed dial. THR reports that Paramount chief Brad Grey “was not ready to greenlight the follow-up” film with Fincher, who apparently suggested the sequel’s budget be less the original. Think about that. An acclaimed director (who enjoys working with the lead actor) would like to do your movie for less than the original and you still can’t just say “yes”? We say let him do it and get this show on the road before Pitt and Fincher’s interests exit and people run away from this idea faster than the zombies in the first film.