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Following on from the vastly underappreciated Planet of the Apes trilogy from the 2010s feels like an almost impossible task. That’s the one laid out before Wes Ball, though. The Maze Runner director has now revealed details of the intriguing fourth entry – one that won’t be a direct sequel but will exist in the same universe.
While Ball described the series from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, to War for the Planet of the Apes “as one of the great trilogies we have in modern movie history,” in an interview with Discussing Film, he said: “I wasn’t interested in doing a part four… 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.”
Ball continued: “I’ll say this, for fans of the original three don’t worry – you’re in good hands… 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.”
Beyond that, Ball was reticent to drop any plot details, though there may be some elements brought over from his scrapped Mouse Guard project, a casualty of last year’s Fox merger with Disney. “We were using the same material, the same kind of technology, we were using a lot of the same people involved,” Ball revealed of the two projects.
For now, the screenplay and concept art are being worked on, while Ball also said they could “actually be in virtual production relatively soon because it’s largely a CG movie.”
Wisely, the creative team appears to be stepping out of the shadow of Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves’ all-conquering trilogy – and are showing no signs of monkeying around when it comes to bringing the world to its knees for yet another new Planet of the Apes movie.
- Every new movie release date still to come in 2020
