devilshalo

Fox sets release for 'Apes' prequel
Rupert Wyatt to direct 'Rise of the Apes'
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

Twentieth Century Fox will release prequel "Rise of the Apes" on June 24, 2011, with Rupert Wyatt confirmed to direct.

Title is tentative.

Studio is partnering with Peter Jackson's visual effects company WETA Digital on the film, which relaunches the "Planet of the Apes" franchise.

Chernin Entertainment is producing.

Wyatt will direct from a script by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, who also are producing with Chernin Entertainment's Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark.

"Rise of the Apes" is an origins story set in present-day San Francisco. The film is a reality-based cautionary tale, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

WETA will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

whotony

sounds like a remake.

Giantrobo

I'll check it out. I liked the remake.

Matthew Chmiel

Yes. It's a reboot of the franchise that's a remake of Conquest at the same time.

Conquest was the Apes film with the strongest political and social commentary that actually hit it's target. While I'd like to see what a reboot can bring to make it topical, especially with what's plaguing say Arizona at the moment, the writing staff makes me think that this isn't a good idea.

Oh and Scott Frank is no longer involved with the project.

Oh and it's a FOX release.

So the over/under odds that this will suck a bag of dicks is huge.

hasslein

Yeah, it looks like its going down the path of AVP Requiem... Great actors under the makeup was what made "Apes" compelling in the first place. Terrible decision.

Artman

Sounds more like Project X than POTA, but we'll see...

GoldenJCJ

Finally I can see the origin of Ape Lincoln!

Greg MacGuffin

rennervision

I'm confused. Maybe I'm not remembering right, but wasn't the remake's ending caused somehow by time-travelling apes? This "cautionary tale" about genetic experiments in modern-day San Francisco doesn't really sound like a prequel to me.

dom56

All I'm going to say to Fox is this...

"Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

islandclaws

Yea.... just forget about that one.

This sounds interesting. I really don't know how I feel about it. Sounds kinda cool, but I can't trust Fox to not fuck it up. At least Weta is handling CG duties.

Mr. Cinema

Burton's version sucked and was a complete bore. So I'm looking forward to a fresh start.

Maxflier

Of course you can't touch the original movies, the first of which is my favorite movie of all time, but I'm always up for more POTA movies.

calhoun07

Ah...if only...

calhoun07

Really? I actually enjoyed Burton's version. Not the best Apes movie ever but decent enough to make the grade.

But I would rather they just leave this alone.

JumpCutz

You're being kind.

It was a completely uninspired phoned-in hack job from everyone involved.

RocShemp

I liked the middle part of Burton's movie. The production design and ape makeup (for the males) was excellent. Sadly, it's bookended by a terrible opening and closing sequence.

Solid Snake

Very much so. Especially Tim Roth's look. He was badass. I barely remember the film but I remember the look of the the apes and they were truly badass, again the males specifically.

Didn't the film have production issues from the studio if I remember correctly?

Groucho

Seems strange that they rendered costumed actors in the past, but oh well.

Trevor

I'm not expecting much, but I'm a sucker for all things POTA.

bunkaroo

I expect this will be in 3D as well. That's how I like all my reality-based cautionary tales.

I'm thinking though that Fox making this movie will be the actual cautionary tale - how to fuck up yet another franchise.

Ky-Fi

I'm not a huge Burton fan, and I love the original Apes movies, but for some reason Burton's take really clicked with me, and I loved it.

milo bloom

Count me in. I've always loved where they went with the story in the Escape... and Conqest... in the original set of films.

Sean O'Hara

It's a Tim Burton film made after 1995, so he expected everyone to realize that.

Geofferson

Same here. Curious to see how they approach this.