It’s a setup that’s gory without being intended to be gritty or coherent, as acknowledged in a joke early on in Double Tap in which neurotic hero Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is shown reading The Walking Dead and declaring it “terrifying … but totally unrealistic.” That world, you might recall, is one that’s undergone an undead apocalypse, leaving scattered survivors to make their wary way while adopting aliases based on where they’re from.
It’s more illuminating to think about Double Tap as a product of industry forces than a movie, because the movie itself is so creatively threadbare, ironically offering no sense of why anyone, from the audience to the team who made it, would feel any urgency to return to its world. The gang’s finally back together, the budget’s almost doubled, and the result is like piling into a car for a long-discussed road trip with people who suddenly realize they never actually settled on a direction to take, much less a destination. Woody Harrelson has returned, as has Abigail Breslin, who turned 13 during the filming of the first film and who looks somewhat annoyed to be playing a sulky teen in this installment. This time, it took.ĭirector Ruben Fleischer, fresh off of Venom, is back for Zombieland: Double Tap, as are Eisenberg and Stone, who now have three Oscar nominations and one win between them. So back to the big screen, where the pair had since had mammoth hits with the tonally similar Deadpool and Deadpool 2.
When momentum stalled out, Reese and Wernick turned toward TV, but didn’t get past the pilot stage at Amazon. There was talk of a sequel almost immediately after the first film became an unexpected hit in 2009, pushing two of its at-the-time rising stars, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone, toward greater fame. Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our Twitter account and you're all set.Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland: Double Tap Photo: Jessica Miglio/Columbia PicturesĪ Zombieland follow-up is the “fetch” of horror comedy - writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been trying to make it happen for the good part of a decade now. We waited 10 years until we had a great idea." Zombieland 2 is released in cinemas on October 18. "We didn’t want to do a typical sequel to try and capitalise on something that was popular. I hesitate trying to characterise it now, but we are all very happy," he noted. "We have something I think people are going to love. It was something echoed by Eisenberg as he spoke about the ten-year gap between the two movies.
And none of us were willing to compromise on the quality of the movie," he outlined. "I think collectively we all felt very strongly that the only circumstance we'd be willing to make the movie is if it's as good or better than the original. Talking to LRM, Fleischer explained the delay with the sequel and his reasons should give fans hope that whatever the sequel will be about, it will live up to the original.