Ruben Fleischer Still Loves What ‘Zombieland’ Became

Zombieland came out in 2009 at the height of the post-apocalypse media fad, and helped put actors like Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg on the map. The same is true of its director, Ruben Fleischer, who’s gone on to helm other action-comedies like Venom, Uncharted, and as of this weekend, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.

Talking to Deadline, Fleischer reminisced about the original Zombieland, whose script he initially dismissed. But once he clocked it as a road trip movie like “National Lampoon’s Vacation meets zombies,” he got more on board with it. Being his feature film debut, he admitted that he “truly had no idea what I was doing.” But he thinks that ended up working to his advantage, speculating the cast and crew appreciated how honest he was in not knowing things.

“My 1st AD, the DP, Woody [Harrelson] even, just were all very patient and helped me out,” Fleischer recalled. “A strength I have is that I think that a lot of young directors feel like they have to show that they know everything. And I was very happy to say, ‘I don’t know, and I need help.’” If you still hold that first Zombieland in high regard, he’s right there with you, saying he recently rewatched it and said he’s “pretty impressed” at how well it holds up. “This sounds arrogant, but it came off pretty good.”

With Now You See Me back in action, where does that leave Zombieland? Fleischer said he’s “starting to talk about” a third film with Sony, and if things go well, it would arrive in 2029. “We kind of left [Double Tap] all saying, ‘We’ll see you in 10 years.’ That’s coming up now, so we’re starting to figure that out.” At the moment, it’s not a hard confirmation, since he’s got other projects he wants to tackle, including a “classic Western” with a vampire lead, “like Unforgiven, if Clint Eastwood was a vampire.” Even with other things on his to-do list, Fleischer seemed hopeful about bringing back his zombie-killing crew one last time.

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