NEW YORK (AP) -- Brad Pitt is getting his action franchise after all.

A person close to Pitt's "World War Z" told The Associated Press on Monday that Paramount Pictures is likely to develop a sequel to the apocalyptic zombie thriller. The person was not authorized to announce the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"World War Z," based on Max Brooks' novel, was always intended to spawn a trilogy for Pitt, who stars as a United Nations inspector. But that seemed in doubt when the film ran significantly over budget, the ending had to be reshot and reports of turmoil among the filmmakers surfaced.

But the film opened strongly over the weekend, earning $66.4 million domestically and another $45.8 million internationally. That put it on course to easily recoup its production budget of about $200 million. Reviews, too, have been mostly positive, and the film earned a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers over the weekend.

Pitt, who's also a producer on the film, has spent recent weeks traveling around the world to aggressively promote "World War Z." When asked about the possibility of sequels in an interview last week, Pitt said there was plenty of fodder.

"We've got so many good story lines stemming from the book or inspired by the book and then just generated from our own powwows," he said. "It might still be fun. We've got enough material, that's for sure."

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Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.