‘Maze Runner’ Director Wes Ball To Helm New ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Film

Fox has tapped Maze Runner director Wes Ball to helm a new Planet of the Apes film.

20th Century Fox’s rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy concluded with the release of Matt Reeves’ third entry in the series. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has learned Maze Runner director Wes Ball has been enlisted by Fox to develop and helm a new Planet of the Apes film.

According to the outlet, it is currently unclear if Wes Ball’s new Planet of the Apes film will reboot the franchise again or serve as an extension of the previous trilogy. The development of Wes Ball’s new film makes Planet of the Apes one of the first Fox franchises to be retooled since the studio was acquired by Disney.

Wes Ball will be entering the familiar territory with his new Planet of the Apes film, as his Maze Runner trilogy was also set in a dystopian future. Based on the Maze Runner book series by James Dasher, Wes Ball’s film trilogy collectively earned almost $1 billion worldwide.

Based on the Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boule, the first film in the franchise was released and 1968 and followed Charlton Heston as an astronaut who crash-landed on a planet ruled by intelligent apes, only to discover he was actually on Earth all along several years after it has been devastated by a nuclear war. The highly-successful film resulted in several Planet of the Apes sequels, a TV series, and 2001 remake by Tim Burton before Fox rebooted the franchise with a trilogy that started with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The reboot trilogy centered on mankind’s fall and the rise of Apes as the dominant species on Earth, with Andy Serkis portraying lead character Caesar through groundbreaking motion capture technology.

Are you excited to see a new Planet of the Apes film? Do you think Maze Runner director Wes Ball is the right choice to move the franchise forward? Share your thoughts on Wes Ball’s Planet of the Apes film in the comments section below!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter