Cloverfield director Matt Reeves will take over the reins from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes director Rupert Wyatt for the sequel, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, according to Deadline.

Rumors were circling recently that Wyatt was unhappy with the production schedule the studio had set and was not likely to return. Fox still expects to meet their May 23, 2014 release date.

Reeves also directed and wrote 2010′s Let Me In, and also wrote many episodes of episodes of Felicity and directed several of them.

Rumors are swirling that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes director Rupert Wyatt may be exiting from the sequel, titled Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, amid concerns of being able to make the already scheduled release date of May 23rd, 2014.

Given similar circumstances surrounding the exit of Gary Ross from The Hunger Games franchise (although I think it was more than the schedule there), are studios getting to aggressive with their slates in order to schedule their profits?

Twentieth Century Fox is looking to it’s science fiction past for it’s future, with a re-release and sequels.

Today the studio announced that after the success of the re-release of Titanic in 3D (which made $344 million worldwide), they would give the same 3D treatment to Independence Day, looking to release that July 3rd, 2013. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters will be released on August 16th, and for the holidays a movie based on the TV series/live show Walking With Dinosaurs will be released December 20th.

Then, in 2014, Fox plans to take the Spring to Summer season starting with the Steven Spielberg directed Robopocalypse on April 25th; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, on May 23rd (Memorial Day); and the next currently-untitled X-Men movie, on July 18th.

I managed to catch Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes today – and I was pleasantly surprised. Overall I think it was a great movie, with little to criticize. Note that following does contain some level of spoilers – I don’t consider them serious though.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, is is essentially a remake of Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, as a prequel and genesis to the entire Planet Of The Apes mythos, although this story does not involve the time travel loop the original series of films presented. It is the present day, and research into drugs that can help the brain repair itself is tested on chimpanzees. When an apparently super-aggressive test ape escapes and causes havoc, the project is shut down. But there is an unexpected side effect…
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A new trailer has been released today for the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a remake of sorts of the classic Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which chronicles how an ape named Caesar became intelligent – and leads a revolution. See it below…Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Brian Cox, Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow, Tom Felton, David Hewlett, and Andy Serkis as Caesar, and will be released in the U.S. on August 5th.
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A twitter account reportedly representing 20th Century Fox (I dislike the fact that you can’t really verify the source) reported that Andy Serkis will play Caesar in the upcoming Rise Of The Apes prequel, and a lot of news outlets are expecting that he will use his motion-capture prowess in yet another digitally created role – although the tweet does not mention this specifically, only that he will be teaming up once again with Weta, the digital shop that worked on Lord Of The Rings and helped create Gollum, the role most associated with Serkis.

Fox has announced the casting of John Lithgow and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) in the upcoming Rise Of The Apes, a re imagined prequel to the Planet Of The Apes franchise. Also mentioned is the plot, with Pinto playing a scientist testing a possible Alzheimer’s cure on apes, fueled by her desire to help her Alzheimer’s suffering dad (Lithgow). The tests result in Caesar, who develops intelligence rapidly.

I thought I mentioned this before, but can’t find it…Fox is planning on a prequel to Planet Of The Apes, now called Rise Of The Apes, and has now given it a release date of June 24th, 2011. This has been simmering for a couple of years, and it seems to not be connected to the Tim Burton 2001 film, dealing with the chimpanzee named Caesar and his leading of a revolt against the humans. Perhaps this is more of a remake of the original films but more in chronological order, skipping or glossing over the time loop? This time around the apes will be CGI and not costumed actors, which could be good or bad (I think the costuming of the Burton film was decent).

For the 40th anniversary of the release of Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox re-released all the movies on Blu-Ray today, including the original with a slew of extras, and a box set of all five films. Here is a review of the Blu-Ray release of the original movie. See the Sci-Fi Movie Store for all the individual movies (and DVD releases as well).

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Rich Handley writes in to let us know about his new book being release for the 40th anniversary of the Planet Of The Apes film series, “Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology”. Read More for the full press release.

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