One of the more unexpected announcements in the wake of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox was the news that another “Planet of the Apes” film was in the works with “The Maze Runner” director Wes Ball spearheading it.
While Rupert Wyatt started things off with the solid ‘Rise,’ it was the two Matt Reeves-directed “Planet of the Apes” films in recent years that pulled in not just major box-office but rave reviews. Considering the last of the planned trilogy arrived only three years ago – it seems a bit sudden to get the franchise going again.
Ball, speaking with Discussing Film, says he’s been regularly meeting with writer Josh Friedman and the script is continuing to move forward. In fact he says they “could actually be in virtual production relatively soon” because it’s largely a computer animated affair. He also says he’s not really looking to find a way of continuing the series after the last one’s definitive ending – instead he’s going somewhere new:
“Those last three movies are one of the great trilogies we have in modern movie history. They are just so well done. They honored the original movies they sprang from, the Charlton Heston movies, but they grounded it in a modern sensibility and it just worked. Caesar is one of the great movie characters that we’ll have throughout time. So what do you do to follow that up, right? At the same time, I wasn’t interested in doing a part four either. We want to also do our own thing.
We have a take. We have a way of staying in the universe that was created before us, but we’re also opening ourselves up in being able to do some really cool new stuff. Again, I’m trying to be careful here. I’ll say this, for fans of the original three don’t worry – you’re in good hands. The original writers and producers that came up with Rise and Dawn, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, they’re also on board with this.”
The comments suggest that like the original 1960s films, this could move the action to the distant future – thus serving as something of a minor refresh whilst staying in canon.
