ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
This year’s other belated Woody-led sequel.
Anyone who endured the disappointment of the Zoolander and Anchorman sequels will know that recapturing the magic of a beloved comedy a decade later is a tricky business. Director Ruben Fleischer is remarkably confident, however, that Double Tap
– the follow-up to his hit 2009 debut Zombieland – isn’t going the same way.
“So many sequels don’t live up to the original, but I feel very proud and confident of the fact that we’ve made something that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the original film,” Fleischer tells Teasers. “Nobody was interested in making this movie if we didn’t feel like we could compete with the first one, to be at least as good, if not better. That was the bar we set.”
Fleischer has improved his chances of achieving his lofty ambitions by reassembling the team behind the original movie – many of whom have had an incredibly successful time of it since. Fleischer himself is hot off the mega-box office of Venom, while returning screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are the brains behind the Deadpool movies. Stars Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin, meanwhile, all now
carry an “Academy Award nominee” (or “winner”, in Stone’s case) caption before their names in the movie’s trailer. So with all that talent involved, why did it take them so long to come back?
“After the first one came out, we had talked about doing a sequel but I was kind of excited to try something different,” Fleischer admits. “Then, after maybe four or five years had passed, I realised Zombieland is a really special thing and that I should definitely try to figure out how to make that sequel. Then it took a while to get the right script – a draft that got everyone really excited to return. And then it was just a matter of finding a time where all of our schedules aligned.”
Ten years on, Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock are still a dysfunctional makeshift family unit, living in a world that’s starting to show the wear-and-tear of the end of civilisation – the overgrown White House in the trailer shows how much nature has taken over. The zombies have also moved on, with the arrival of new varieties including a faster, stronger, “T-800” breed – Arnie would be proud… “There is an evolution of the zombies and they go in different directions, each with their own kind of personality,” explains Fleischer.
He also teases that Double Tap could feature a treat to rival Bill Murray’s movie-stealing Zombieland cameo. “I share that love of Bill Murray in the first one,” says the director. “I don’t know how you could ever top that, but if someone were to stay to the finish of the film, perhaps they might see something a little special…”
ETA | 18 OCTOBER / ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP OPENS THIS AUTUMN.