Pre-production on Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' sequel shut down: report

Brad Pitt in "World War Z" (Paramount)

Pre-production on the sequel to the Paramount hit “World War Z” has been shut down, sources tell Variety, after a budget for the film could not be reached.

Brad Pitt was set to return and his “Seven” and “Fight Club” director David Fincher was on board to helm. Producers told Variety that the goal was to start production by this summer and while the process was still in the early stages, the studio had begun to look to fill out the ensemble.

Paramount had no comment on the news.

Sources could not confirm what exactly the budget concerns were, other than the studio becoming more and more uncomfortable with where it was headed. The previous film had hit similar production budget issues with Damon Lindelof famously coming on at the last minute to rewrite the third act while the budget continued to inflate. That film was able to survive the production issues and go on to gross $540 million worldwide, but even though that worked out, the studio did not want to see a similar situation on the sequel.

It’s currently unknown whether this film will go back into development or be completely shelved as the studio tries to figure out if the sequel is possible with the right budget.

The Playlist first reported the news.