Following the recent casting of Zoey Deutch (Set it Up), Deadline reports that Avan Jogia (Victorious, Now Apocalypse) has been tapped to join in Sony’s upcoming Zombieland 2, a follow-up to the acclaimed 2009 horror-comedy film. Jogia is set to portray the role of Berkeley who is described as the epitome of the bad boy musician that you would hate for your daughter to fall in love with. Production is scheduled to begin in January 2019.
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Director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were all put on the map following the success, with Fleischer helming the most recent entry into Sony’s first Spider-Man spinoff Venom, and Rheese and Wernick going on to help bring the Deadpool franchise to life for Fox, and all of them will be returning to the director’s and writers’ chairs for the sequel.
The film will also feature the return of stars Woody Harrelson (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me), Emma Stone (La La Land) and Abigail Breslin (Scream Queens), which may raise the budget to above $24 million this time, especially given Stone’s Oscar win La La Land, Harrelson’s nomination for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Eisenberg’s nomination for The Social Network.
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The original followed four strangers who meet on the road in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and, while initially at each other’s throats, they soon come to bond with each other and form a close-bonded group. Harrelson played the violent cowboy Tallahassee, Eisenberg played geeky Columbus, with Stone and Breslin playing crafty sisters Wichita and Little Rock, all characters named after the locations they are heading to.
Zombieland came out in 2009 and quickly became one of the most talked-about and acclaimed hits for the zombie genre, with critics and audiences praising it for its intelligent humor, gleeful gore, self-aware nature and the minor ensemble’s fantastic chemistry. The film was also a commercial hit, grossing over $100 million globally off of a $24 million budget, as well as earning over $55 million on home media as of 2015.
The sequel is expected to be released next year on October 2019, just in time for the 10th anniversary of the original film.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
