"World War Z 2" takes a major step with a new writer

According to THR, Paramount has tasked writer Dennis Kelly, the creator of the British television series "Utopia."

The sequel will be directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible), to be co-produced by Skydance Productions, with studio executive David Ellison joining Jeremy Kleiner, Ian Bryce, Dede Gardner and Brad Pitt as the movie's producers.

"World War Z 2's" previous scribe, Steven Knight, turned in the initial draft of the script back in August. He elaborated on what he liked about the first installment, hinting at what the sequel's narrative could be like.

"I think the beauty of the first film was the way that it never paused for breath," Knight said in an interview with Collider. "It never spent a moment thinking, 'Hang on a minute, we'd better tell the audience what this is all about.' It stayed in the moment, it stayed with that person."

The movie was directed Marc Foster and was written by Drew Goddard (The Martian), Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) and Matthew Michael Carnahan, and is based on a book of the same name by Max Brooks.

"World War Z" was plagued with production issues and reshoots, including a reworking of the film's third act.

The original third act saw Brad Pitt's character "leading team of zombie-clearers in Russia, discovering that cold was their weakness, then setting out to rescue his wife from the clutches of Matthew Fox's military character in the planned follow-up." 

The movie launched in 2013 and eventually became a box office success, earning $540 million globally. It is currently the highest grossing zombie movie.

"World War Z" features Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Fury), Mireille Enos (If I Stay, Sabotage), James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3, The Grey), Matthew Fox (Lost, Vantage Point) and David Morse (Disturbia, The Hurt Locker).

The confirmed release date of "World War Z 2" is on June 9, 2017.