‘Maze Runner’ Director Wes Ball To Direct New ‘Planet of the Apes’ Movie For Disney/Fox

Disney is developing a new Planet of the Apes since the studio acquired 20th Century Fox earlier this year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox has tapped Wes Ball (The Maze Runner franchise) to develop and direct a new Planet of the Apes. It is unclear whether the latest Apes project is meant to be a new reboot or an extension of the previous film series that were directed by Matt Reeves and starred Andy Serkis. Read: EXCLUSIVE: Character Breakdowns For ‘The Mighty Ducks’ Series Coming To Disney+ The original Planet of the Apes film, based on a novel by French writer Pierre Boulle and starring Charlton Heston, centers on an astronaut who lands on a planet and discovers an advanced ape civilization ruling over primitive humans. In the final, infamous twist, he learns he is actually on Earth, which had suffered an apocalyptic nuclear war. The movie was a commercial and critical hit upon its 1968 release and spawned numerous sequels and a TV series throughout the 1970s. In 2001, Tim Burton remade the movie as an action-adventure that failed to excite audiences. However, Fox found success again with a reboot trilogy that began with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, an origin story chronicling how the primates took over that featured envelope-pushing motion-capture technology and a stirring performance by Serkis as the leader of the apes, Caesar. Source: The Hollywood Reporter