It looks like Planet of the Apes will be one of the first Fox franchises resurrected under its new Disney owners, with Deadline reporting that The Maze Runner filmmaker Wes Ball has signed on to develop a new film in the long-running sci-fi franchise.
According to Deadline’s report, the project is in its earliest stages, and its unclear at this point whether it will pick up from the most recent trilogy of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, or if it will be a complete reboot.
Based on Pierre Boule’s 1963 novel La Planète des singes, the Planet of the Apes franchise launched in 1968 with the Charlton Heston-headlined classic, which was followed by four sequels between 1970 and 1973, as well as two TV series in 1974 and 1975.
The series was first rebooted back in 2001 by Tim Burton, which was financially successful, but mauled by fans and critics. Fox then relaunched the franchise with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, kicking off a trilogy which told the story of Andy Serkis’ Caesar, a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.
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