Zombieland TV Series Coming Next Year; Screenwriters Working on a Micronauts Movie
Posted 10.19.11 by Ryan
While 2009's Zombieland didn't exactly start the current zombie craze, it's success at the box office certainly proved that zombies could be profitable as well. Soon after its release, a 3-D sequel was confirmed by director Ruben Fleischer, but two years later, Zombieland 2 has yet to arrive, with Fleischer saying in July that the sequel was stuck in the "not-happening-process." It may yet succeed as a TV show.
Vulture reports that in lieu of a sequel, a half-hour, Zombieland TV series could be launched on Fox in the 2012-2013 season instead — a fitting move since screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick initially conceived Zombieland as a TV show in the first place, with Zombieland producer Gavin Polone telling Vulture that CBS ordered a pilot in 2005 before proceeding to "take all the good stuff out." Wernick and Reese are reportedly on board for the TV series, though what exactly their involvement will be is unknown.
Zombieland 2 isn't entirely dead (or undead, for that matter), but it's viability has come into question of late. Besides Fleischer, actor Jesse Eisenberg admitted he was doubtful of a sequel back in the summer, while Woody Harrelson expressed his uncertainty about Zombieland 2 in February. Both Eisenberg and Harrelson have been steadily working since the release of Zombieland, while Emma Stone isn't doing too badly either, finding success with August's The Help, shooting the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, and currently reuniting with Fleischer for the period crime movie Gangster Squad. "If the TV show goes, then the sequel won't happen," said Polone, who also said the main leads of the movie won't be in the TV show for reasons we just explained.
Writers Reese and Wernick haven't been sitting around either. After writing the in-development Deadpool spin-off for Fox, and G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation for Paramount, Deadline reports that the writers' next task is to pen a script for a Micronauts movie based on the Hasbro action figures, who also found continued popularity in comic books.
J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8) will produce the movie, as he has been attached to since 2009. There's no indication what the approach will be to a Micronauts movie, as the toyline never revealed much explanation and the characters have not had a comic book in publication since 2003.