'World War Z 2' left without a director

Barona was announced as director previous year, but is still in post production of his next feature, A Monster Calls. Bayona believed that he would have needed more time, due to prior commitments on another film he shot titled "A Monster Calls".

Until we hear otherwise, and we may not, Paramount claim that "Because of pre-existing film commitments, Bayona is not able to make World War Z this year, and it is our ambition to do so. He is a wonderful director and we hope to work with him soon", the statement read.

Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) had taken the film on, replacing the original World War Z helmer Marc Forster.

The first draft of the World War Z 2 script was written by Steven Knight (Locke) and later rewritten by Dennis Kelly (Black Sea).

Well now...it's hard not to look at this news and not be remined of the MANY production issues that plagued World War Z before it's release. Today's news isn't a great start for World War Z 2, which now has a release date of June 9, 2017.

Word of Bayona exiting the film comes only a few months before Paramount and Plan B had meant to get the cameras rolling, with the studios primed to welcome back Brad Pitt et al.in time for a summer shoot.

Production planned to still go ahead.

Bayona was reportedly already considering jumping ship to Jurassic World 2.

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