When World War Z was going through its production, story after story emerged that it was all going pear-shaped, that Marc Forster and Brad Pitt weren't speaking to one another, that it had gone horribly over-budget. In fact, when we sat down to watch World War Z, we were preparing ourselves for the worst. And yet, it was nowhere near as bad we'd originally expected.
World War Z went on to be both financially and critically successful. Naturally, a sequel is in the works and Pitt is eager to get things rolling. One thing - Marc Forster, the director, won't be coming back. There's no official word, other than he's simply out of the process. During the production, the rumours were that Forster was generally unhappy with just about everything - the script, the cast, the producers. In fact, the entire ending had to be re-shot and there's even another rumour that Forster wasn't involved with the re-shoots and that one of Pitt's director friends was brought in to film it and get it sorted.
How are we feeling about this? Marc Forster hasn't had a great run of luck, lately. It all started when he began to move away from the indie dramas that made him famous. This is the man that directed who Monster's Ball, Stranger Than Fiction and Finding Neverland. He followed these with Quantum of Solace, Machine Gun Preacher and now, World War Z. All three of these either haven't done well or there's been a cloud over the production. Quantum of Solace was marred by the Writers' Strike and World War Z, well, it was a mess from day one but it miraculously came good when it was released. Machine Gun Preacher was overlooked by pretty much everyone and slipped out of the box office.
Who would work as a replacement to direct World War Z's sequel? Duncan Jones. He's working on World of Warcraft at the moment, but when that's the done, a big-budget blockbuster is the way forward for him. Source Code, Moon - these are all very fine films with a strong visual director. If World of Warcraft does well, you can bet Jones will be getting a ton of offers to direct.
