Although the release date is more than 18 months away, it looks like director Rupert Wyatt may be stepping away from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Wyatt directed the 2011 reboot/prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and was expected to return for multiple sequels along with star Andy Serkis. Now, reports are coming out that Wyatt is exiting the production with the explanation that he doesn’t feel comfortable making the expected release date of May 23, 2014. Hit the jump for much more, including what this move means for the future of the sequel and for Wyatt’s career.
Deadline reports that Wyatt may be exiting Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but Fox has declined to comment. If Wyatt’s explanation is to be believed, his departure would be similar to that of director Gary Ross when he opted not to direct The Hunger Games: Catching Fire due to the studio’s time constraint, even after the first film’s phenomenal success. Wyatt was certainly a major component to the success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but much like Ross’s situation, we will have to wait until the sequel comes out before we can say whether the directors were integral to the quality of the films or if it was just a rabid fan base for both properties that drove up the box office numbers.
Without Wyatt, Fox will be on the hunt for a director to step in quickly. The franchise is too important to waste any time and the studio is already reportedly satisfied with the script turned in by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The follow-up film should see the apes taking over the world and possibly talking, which the screenwriters talked about briefly.
Don’t feel too bad for Wyatt if he leaves the production. He’s also attached to direct Agent 13 for Universal with Charlize Theron starring. He may now be able to revisit Londongrad, which was to star Michael Fassbender as former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with Polonium-210 back in 2006.
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I just watched ‘Rise’ again for the something-teenth time and I love. The pace is excellent, the actors are on point, the plot is very believable, etc. I’m really looking forward to the next movie, but I do think it would be a loss to lose Wyatt. It’s only speculation though, the ‘Dawn’ hasn’t even started production so.. in time.
Zero empathy then?
I’d hate to be one of your ‘friends’, if you have any….
Empathy for who? He’s leaving the project. The studio made a deadline that he can’t handle and that’s it. He’ll do other stuff, it’s not like he wrote the movie. I’m not hurting his feelings. Ya, we missed out, but only potentially. No one new has been named so its just pointless to cry about it. Not that you had anything constructive to say or anything.
Leave that shitty franchise. People only showed up to see if Franco was stoned in the movie
TROLL!!!
No. Just very opinionated.
This is (unfortunately) par the course for FOX; giving unreasonably tight deadlines to filmmakers just to make an insanely short predetermined release date… it’s a shame if FOX, by their usual heavy-handedness, have forced Wyatt’s hand and effectively pushed him away, but not surprising! Ironically, the very project that FOX could and should have pushed into production this very year, the ’24′ movie, they didn’t because they only wanted to spend a miserly $30m on it, and not the $45m that Kiefer Sutherland and producers wanted, typical of this studio…
Studio’s making these release dates before the movie even goes into production is a mistake. I liked “Rise” a lot and although I would like to see Wyatt return, I can’t blame him for jumping ship. He obviously doesn’t feel that in the tight time frame that a good film can come out of it and now fans will be left with shit most likely. Way to go greedy execs!
Darn, this sucks! I hope he doesn’t leave.