While Rupert Wyatt got a lot of deserved credit for the modern reboot with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, he wasn’t too keen on a rushed schedule for a sequel as Fox announced a planned May 23rd, 2014 release for the feature earlier this year. Similar to how Gary Ross stepped away from Catching Fire, Wyatt did the same. And that’s opened up a list of potential directors to take over for the film and to see if they can help continue the modern reboot.
Deadline has learned that 20th Century Fox has a good shortlist of people they’re interested in to take it over. The list incldes:
- Matt Reeves (Cloverfield)
- J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed)
- Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later)
- Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter)
- Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim)
- Juan Antonio Bayona (The Impossible)
- Rian Johnson (Looper)
It’s certainly an engaging list of directors that all have something unique to bring to the table, though Deadline goes on to say that Johnson’s people deny that he’s on the list and it’s unlikely that del Toro would join up as after he wraps on Pacific Rim, he’s off to work on the script for the TV series The Strain that he’s been trying to get off the ground for awhile and now has set for a pilot script over at FX. Deadline indicates that a decision should come quickly and that Fox is looking for an emerging director to take the spot with a lot of creative leeway to bring something with vision to the screen.
[Source: Deadline]
