For Ruben Fleischer, the passage of time has become part of the fun when it comes to his horror-comedy breakout. Having directed “Zombieland” in 2009 and “Zombieland: Double Tap” in 2019, Fleischer now says that “Zombieland 3” is tentatively aiming for a 2029 arrival. “We joke at the end of the day that we’ll do it in ten years,” he told Deadline this week. “That’d put us at 2029.” While nothing is locked, he emphasized that he has “a few things that are raring to go, so we’ll see which one comes first.”
But the other revelation Fleischer shared involves the kind of Hollywood crossroads that can reshape a career. After the success of his debut feature, he was suddenly being courted for massive projects — including “Mission: Impossible.” What followed was a surreal brush with blockbuster filmmaking at the highest level.
“This was a crazy experience that I honestly have yet to replicate,” he said. “It was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and so when my first movie came out, I was like, ‘This sh*t’s easy. I’ve got this.’ But then, yeah. I did get pursued by a bunch of people.” Then came the call from Tom Cruise.
“I literally got a call saying Tom Cruise would like to meet me, and I met with him in a room in CAA,” Fleischer recalled. “He was telling me, ‘I hope someday I’m lucky enough to work with you,’ and I was like, ‘I am for sure being punked.’ It was surreal.”
Cruise wasn’t the only heavyweight in the room. “I met with him and J.J. Abrams, and I just was like, ‘This is too much,’” Fleischer continued. “Like, if I didn’t know what I was doing [on ‘Zombieland’], imagine going and dealing with Tom Cruise all day.”
Ultimately, he walked away from “Mission: Impossible,” deciding he wasn’t ready for that scale of moviemaking. Instead, he went off to direct “30 Minutes or Less.”
As for “Zombieland 3,” the filmmaker’s comments make clear that timing and concept will dictate whether the film actually happens. Still, the decade-jump conceit remains appealing to him. In the past, he even teased the possibility of the next film opening with the gang stepping off a boat in a completely new country, shifting the zombie comedy into unfamiliar territory while allowing the characters to age in real time.
Whether the stars align — literally and narratively — remains to be seen. But Fleischer is clearly open to returning, and 2029 is now the closest thing fans have to a target date.
