‘Zombieland’ Co-Creator Denies Reports of Sequel Screenings

Zombieland co-writer Rhett Reese shot down rumors an already-shot Zombieland 2 was going to be screened for audiences.

“The stories that a Zombieland sequel is in the can are as fake as fake news gets,” Reese wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “Sorry, guys.”

Citing a reader-submitted tip, Splash Report claimed a theater in Long Beach, California, would screen ‘Zombieland 2: Double Tap‘ — an alleged sequel to the 2009 zombie comedy that had been filmed in secret — only for one potential attendee to tell Bloody Disgusting the screening had been inexplicably cancelled.

Reese, who co-wrote Zombieland and both Deadpool movies with writing partner Paul Wernick, has long hoped for a sequel to the horror comedy that starred Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Woody Harrelson.

“We’re going on the tenth anniversary of Zombieland,” Wernick told Vulture last month. “Zombieland came out October of 2009. We don’t know what you get someone for their tenth anniversary, but it may be a Zombieland 2.”

“The hope is that we’re shooting that thing early 2019 for an October of ’19 release,” Wernick added. “With the original cast, by the way.”

Sony Pictures teased a Zombieland 2 logo at CinemaCon in 2016, and the writing duo told ComicBook.com last year the followup was “in active development.”

The cast have read and loved the script, the duo told us, and Zombieland and Venom director Reuben Fleischer was signed on to return as of March 2017. The hold up, they said, comes down to money.

“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,” Wernick said.

Similar to their efforts to launch Deadpool at Fox, the writers are persistently pursuing the sequel with Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman.

“We see Tom Rothman pretty frequently now and we’re pestering that dude,” Reese 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.”

Last month, Splash Report, citing a source familiar with the script, claimed the sequel would be titled ‘Zombieland Too‘ and would introduce “super zombies” — a new breed of harder-to-kill undead — causing Columbus, Wichita, Tallahassee, and Little Rock to re-team in an attempt to annihilate the horde before their destructive path forces the extinction of mankind.