Director of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, J. A. Bayona was set to direct the sequel to 2013’s hit zombie film, World War Z. However, Bayona eventually left the production after being hired to direct the colossal Fallen Kingdom. World War Z was a pretty decent film and a commercial success. Bayona seemed to have been a great fit to direct the sequel especially due to his experience with horror in The Orphanage along with the disaster genre in The Impossible. Bayona provides some words surrounding his departure from the zombie sequel.
Speaking to Den of Geek, he revealed some information in regards to what happened to the project. He said:
“We were working on that project for around a year, and we had a great idea. We were very excited. We designed great set pieces, and we were very excited with the direction we were taking with the film, but somehow, we never found a way to connect it all together.”
“There was a moment where we were about to start production, and I wasn’t ready. I told them and I said, ‘Listen, I’m not the right guy for this. There’s probably another guy who’s able to take care of this in a way that the movie will not get affected,’ so I decided to step out of the project.”
Well, it could be cold feet or Fallen Kingdom seemed to be something he’d rather do instead of this. Well that ‘another guy’ turned out to be the masterful David Fincher, known for his work in acclaimed films like Fight Club and The Social Network. It seems even that may take some time to begin filming since Fincher is busy working on season two of his acclaimed crime series, Mindhunter.
