Director: New Planet of the Apes film will feel like the recent trilogy

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Wes Ball, director of the MAZE RUNNER trilogy, spent a year and a half developing an animated adaptation of the comic book series MOUSE GUARD for 20th Century Fox. When Fox was acquired by Disney, Disney decided that MOUSE GUARD's $170 million budget was too high and cancelled the project. But soon after that they came to Ball with something of a consolation prize: the chance to take the helm of a new entry in one of Fox's most popular franchises, the PLANET OF THE APES series. Since DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES director Matt Reeves was producing MOUSE GUARD and Andy Serkis, who provided the motion-capture performance for the ape Caesar in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, DAWN, and WAR, was in the MOUSE GUARD vocal cast, it's easy to see how Disney came to the idea that Ball might be an APES contender.

Ball's involvement with a new PLANET OF THE APES movie was announced in December, and during an interview with Discussing Film he confirmed that development of the project is continuing during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he and screenwriter Josh Friedman have been working on the story through Zoom conversations while an art team has been creating some "incredible concept art".

Of course, Ball couldn't give any specific details on the story he and Friedman have come up with, but he did say that they're looking to make something that's in line with the recent APES trilogy.

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. Josh Friedman is writing this thing, a lot of the same crew is kind of involved. We will feel like we’re part of that original trilogy, but at the same time we’re able to do some really cool new stuff. It will be really exciting to see on the biggest screen possible."

Ball added that the film could even be in "virtual production" soon, because it's "largely a CG movie." Seemingly confirming that the same technology that brought the apes to life in RISE, DAWN, and WAR will be used again on this one.

I became an APES fan when I was a little kid, thanks to the original movies being shown regularly on TV, so I'm always happy to see more entries being added into the series.

Friedman's previous credits include writing Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS and creating The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and he earned a story credit on TERMINATOR: DARK FATE by being in the writers room that was assembled to plot out a new TERMINATOR trilogy that's probably not going to be made.