Zombieland: Double Tap

Zombieland: Double Tap,I am enjoying this new trend of shorter marketing campaigns. Simply put, this is the first trailer for Zombieland: Double Tap, a film that opens in less than three months. Will there be a second trailer? Maybe, but this is a solid and enjoyable sell that will play well in front of Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Hobbs & Shaw, It Chapter Two and Joker. No, the world doesn’t need a Zombieland sequel, but the first film was an uncommonly sharp piece of popcorn entertainment, and everyone is back in the saddle this time out.

Yes, there is a certain tragedy in getting a Zombieland: Double Tapsequel ten years later. Back in 2009, a movie like Zombieland, studio-backed original, an R-rated, star+concept, was a big hit specifically because it was somewhat new and unique unto itself. Rave reviews helped, of course, but in 2019 there is almost zero chance that a wholly original horror-comedy like Zombieland would have broken big in the mainstream theatrical release. Penned by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, and directed by Ruben Fleischer, Zombieland earned $75.5 million domestic and $102 million worldwide on a $26 million budget.

It essentially introduced Jesse Eisenberg to folks who hadn’t seen Adventureland or The Education of Charlie Banks, and it was Abigail Breslin’s first “not quite a child star” role three years after Little Miss Sunshine. Emma Stone had broken out two years prior in Superbad, but this was her first major supporting/starring role after that comedy. And it announced to the world that Woody Harrelson had now graduated to “crusty character actor” who would provide value and prestige to projects big and small.

Today In: Consumer
Them all returning ten years later isn’t quite the “new model, old parts” sell of Fast & Furious in April of 2009, nine years after The Fast and the Furious, but it’s not entirely dissimilar. This time out, it’s not that the original stars can’t break out in other would-be vehicles and franchises, it’s that the world has changed so much to the point that one of the only ways to get a decent studio-backed hit is to cash in on a prior cinematic glory.
All four of the main cast members are doing just fine, as the opening cast roll call mockingly demonstrates, but would much rather show up to Zombieland: Double Tap 2 then show up we have long ago entered a realm where audiences for “the next Zombieland.” Yes, Hollywood is now a place that would rather reboot The Matrix and remake The Lion King than produce The Matrix and produce The Lion King, but that’s at least as much the fault of moviegoers as it is of Hollywood.

PROMOTED
In 2002 unique takes on spy movies The Bourne Identity and xXx hit it relatively big because they were new. In 2016 and 2017, Jason Bourne and The Return of Xander Cage hit it relatively big because they were old, familiar and refurbished. The good news, at least for Zombieland: Double Tap, is that audiences liked the film at least partially because they liked the characters. As such, it stands to reason that they may show up again to go on another comic adventure with Tallahassee, Wichita, Columbus, and Little Rock.
Adding a few newbies will sweeten the deal, and I’m assuming Sony and friends didn’t spend that much more than they did on the first film. To its advantage, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Gemini Man it is the only live-action comedy in October alongside the grimmer likes of Joker. And, thanks to It Chapter Two scaring everything else off the next two months, Zombieland: Double Tap 2 could be the proverbial Halloween horror flick of the season when it opens on October 18.

The gathering will confront another zombie danger as another type of zombie has created. This new super-zombie type is quicker, greater, and more grounded than the past strain of zombies and harder to execute. These super-zombies have fired gathering up into a crowd going from city to city leaving a way of decimation behind them.