Several months ago, we heard that the PLANET OF THE APES franchise was one of the 20th Century Fox properties that Disney was most interested in continuing when they purchased the studio. Now Disney's APES plans are starting to move forward, as Deadline has learned that the Disney-owned Fox has hired Wes Ball, director of the MAZE RUNNER trilogy, to take the helm of a new entry in the PLANET OF THE APES series.
Ball's APES movie is in the very early stages of development, and it's not clear yet whether it will be connected to the recent trilogy that wrapped up with WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES in 2017. Although, those movies were so recent there might be a backlash if Ball chooses to bring his apes to the screen in a different way.
Deadline reminds us of the history of the APES franchise:
Starting in 1968, the movies spawned 5 titles based on Pierre Boule’s French novel along with a ’70s series and action figures before there were Star Wars toys. Tim Burton rebooted with one pic starring Mark Wahlberg in 2001. It earned $362.1M worldwide, but didn’t spawn a new series. But then in 2011, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES gave a more modern spin on the tale with Andy Serkis in the role of Caesar the ape, who morphs from lab study to king of the monkeys. Through three movies including DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and WAR, the trio grossed $1.68 billion around the globe.
Ball's own MAZE RUNNER trilogy earned $949 million, so it was up there as well.
I haven't watched the MAZE RUNNER movies, but I know Ball had been working on a really cool looking animated project called MOUSE GUARD at Fox, which Disney then scrapped for being "too big a risk" because it had a $170 million budget. So after dealing that blow to his mouse movie, it's nice that Disney is letting Ball go ape.