Juan Antonio Bayona, director of superb 2007 horror flick The Orphanage and 2012 disaster drama The Impossible, has been signed to direct the sequel to the Brad Pitt-starring, 2012 blockbuster World War Z. 

The sequel to the surprise hit with the troubled production will be the Spanish film director’s greatest task yet, and by quite a large margin. The Guillermo del Toro-produced The Orphanage (2007) had a budget of $4 million. The Impossible (2012), which was also positively received and saw lead actress Naomi Watts nominated for an Academy Award, had a budget of $45 million. The first World War Z film had a budget of $190 million, and it seems reasonable to expect a budget of similar proportions will be in order for the second installment. The film grossed $202 million domestically and $540 million worldwide.

The announcement is promising, though, despite the director’s limited history with films on this level. Bayona has shown the ability in the aforementioned films to craft both intimate character scenes and bigger, more dramatic fare. Also, it was the writing that required such an extensive overhaul on the last WWZ outing, a redraft that hopefully won’t require repeating with the second chapter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bayona will also oversee the writing of the sequel.

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Tyler Hanan

Tyler raves about movies on the Let The Right Films In podcast. Listen to him make jokes over his beleaguered cohost Kayla St. Onge and their more qualified guests who deserve so much better at soundcloud.com/ltrfipod. Find him on Twitter @tylerhanan.

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