Tag: Planet of The Apes 4

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‘Planet Of The Apes 4’ Director Wes Ball To Tackle Live-Action ‘The Legend Of Zelda’ Movie For Sony Pictures

Earlier this month, a first-look teaser trailer for Wes Ball‘s “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes” was released, the fourth installment in 20th Century Studios‘ modern “Planet of The Apes” franchise. An impressive feat to take the reigns from Matt Reeves (“The Batman”) and it sounds like Ball has established what his next big project will be and it is a real doozy.

Nintendo has officially announced that they are moving forward with a live-action feature film version of their popular fantasy film “The Legend of Zelda” at Sony Pictures with Ball directing and Avi Arad (“Ghost In The Shell”) producing. Arad might be best known for his attachment to the successful “Spider-Man” franchise including the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” but is also currently involved with Jordan Vogt-Roberts‘ (“Kong: Skull Island) “Metal Gear Solid” movie at Sony that has Oscar Isaac set to star as Snake.

Another tidbit mentioned in the press release is that Nintendo isn’t just handing over the rights to Sony Pictures as the video game company will be co-fiancing the film by providing more than 50% of the production budget. This would likely mean that they’ll have a larger participation in profits if the film is another box office success. Although it’s unknown how much the ultimate cost of the budget will be given we’re only looking at an announcement and budgeting only happens when a script is much further along.

How to add The Legend of Zelda's Link into your D&D game - Dexerto

“Zelda” focuses on the adventurous protagonist Link and is set within a high-fantasy world that lends itself to some fun quests on the level of “The Lord of The Rings.”

Here is the official press release posted by Nintendo:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minami-ku, Kyoto, President & CEO: Shuntaro Furukawa) is pleased to announce that it has started planning and developing a live-action movie about “The Legend of Zelda”. The film will be co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, a Fellow of Nintendo, and Avi Arad, president of Arad Productions Inc., who has produced a number of blockbuster films. The film will be produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions Inc., and will be directed by Wes Ball. In addition, Nintendo will invest more than 50% of the production cost of the film, and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. will co-finance the worldwide distribution.

It’s been said by Deadline that Derek Connolly is writing the film’s script, he isn’t a stranger to video game adaptations after previously working with Arad on “Metal Gear Solid” and on Legendary’s successful film “Detective Pikachu.”

Ball really got on studio radars after his “Maze Runner” franchise and once attempted a feature film adaptation of the comic book “Mouse Guard” only for the project to get nixed during Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox leading a heap of gestating films at 20th Century Studios were canceled. The filmmaker would eventually be selected to tackle “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes” allowing him to oversee a CGI-focused epic and should be a great choice to bring Hyrule to the big screen.

There had been an obvious assumption that once the animated “Super Mario Bros.” movie earned Universal Pictures a billion dollars other Nintendo properties like “Zelda,” “Starfox,” and “Metroid” (John Woo nearly made a film) would be next to be turned into feature films. And the former is now officially in the development stage.

Sony Pictures is sort of an interesting choice given they’re already developing a wave of film and television projects based on their PlayStation games which includes the second season of “The Last of Us” at HBO, a series version of “God of War” at Amazon, and director Chad Stahelski (“John Wick 1-4”) is attached to make a film based on the samurai game “Ghost of Tsushima.” There is also an expectation that a follow-up to Tom Holland‘s “Uncharted” could happen down the line as well, which was produced by Arad as well.

SOURCE: NINTENDO JAPAN

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‘Planet Of The Apes 4’: Weta Digital Returning With ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ VFX Supervisor Tapped

It was heartbreaking to see Wes Ball’s (Maze Runner Trilogy) big special effects event film Mouse Guard getting scrapped as part of the wave of films that got cancelled in the wake of Disney’s merger with 21st Century Fox and taking oversight on feature films in development at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios).

Ball would instead be announced as the director and co-writer on a fourth installment in the modern Planet of The Apes franchise, the filmmaker assuring fans the project wouldn’t be a reboot but taking place in the same universe as the last three movies. The director co-writing the new film with Josh Friedman, who has worked on Steven Spielberg’s War of The Worlds, Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia, Terminator: Dark Fate, the Snowpiercer series, and Apple’s Foundation.

It looks like the next film should have the same level of impressive visual effects as previous installments.

The Ronin has learned that Weta Digital’s Phillip Leonhardt will be the visual effects supervisor on the untitled film having previously worked on Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel and Maze Runner: The Death Cure. Leonhardt is no stranger to the franchise with involvement on Matt Reeves’ War For The Planet of The Apes.

Weta Digital was working closely with Ball on Mouse Guard and Andy Serkis was going to have a role on that film, we would not be shocked if Serkis returned for Planet of The Apes 4. However, Serkis playing new chimpanzee role within the franchise could mimic how Roddy McDowall played both Cornelius and Caesar in the original string of films.

Folks unfamiliar with the original Planet of The Apes movies might be unaware that the modern trilogy really only covered pics such as Conquest of The Planet of The Apes and Battle For The Planet of The Apes, stories that don’t take place in the original timeline of the first two movies which is nearly 2,000 years in the future from the settings we’ve recently seen.

If I’m 20th Century Studios and Wes Ball, I would be ready at this point to make the true time jump to the point were the apes are running their own evolved society (less primitive and speaking) and potentially seeing a group of astronauts crash land on this planet having to navigate a setting where humans are no longer the dominate species. Beneath The Planet of The Apes revealed a secret group of mutated humans have gained the ability of telepathy (something that nobody has tackled since that installment), which could be an interesting spin as it’s not just a straight rehash of the original 1968 film and Tim Burton’s misguided reboot from 2001 starring Mark Wahlberg with fantastic makeup from Rick Baker.

Speaking of Wahlberg, we have our fingers crossed that Wes Ball hires someone with a little more age/skill to play a lead human role such as Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us) for potential roles of Colonel George Taylor or John Brent.

It was revealed he would be reuniting with production designer Daniel Dorrance ((A Good Day To Die Hard, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, The Expendables 3) on Planet of The Apes 4.

We have to assume that Ball will also bring on Maze Runner: The Death Cure cinematographer Gyula Pados (Predators, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level), who has been working on David F. Sandberg’s DC Comics sequel Shazam! Fury of The Gods in Atlanta. Pados having extensive experience with exterior shoots would certainly make his addition to the project an asset.

How far along Planet of The Apes 4 is at the moment is unknown and when they hope to begin shooting.

Posted on in Film News

Wes Ball Reveals New ‘Planet of The Apes’ Movie Is Written By ‘Avatar 2’ Screenwriter Josh Friedman – Teases Weta Digital’s Return?

Despite original reports that Wes Ball’s new Planet of The Apes film would be a hard reboot of the franchise, the director has come out publicly to debunk that the film will be ignoring or undoing the work of the last three films. 

While speaking with Discussing Film, Wes dropped an interesting tidbit about the creative team working on the new Apes film that includes Avatar 2 and Terminator: Dark Fate screenwriter Josh Friedman tackling the script. 

BALL: “We were using the same material, the same kind of technology, we were using a lot of the same people involved – I had asked Andy Serkis to join Mouse Guard. So it was kind of natural fit. I understand where it came from and my big thing was: what do you do for a Planet of the Apes sequel? One, those last three movies are one of the great trilogies we have in modern movie history. They are just so well done. They honored the original movies they sprang from, the Charlton Heston movies, but they grounded it in a modern sensibility and it just worked. Caesar is one of the great movie characters that we’ll have throughout time. So what do you do to follow that up, right? At the same time, I wasn’t interested in doing a part four either. We want to also do our own thing.”

“We have a take. We have a way of staying in the universe that was created before us, but we’re also opening ourselves up in being able to do some really cool new stuff. Again, I’m trying to be careful here. I’ll say this, for fans of the original three don’t worry – you’re in good hands. The original writers and producers that came up with Rise and Dawn, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, they’re also on board with this. Josh Friedman is writing this thing, a lot of the same crew is kind of involved. We will feel like we’re part of that original trilogy, but at the same time we’re able to do some really cool new stuff. It will be really exciting to see on the biggest screen possible.”

It sounds like that “technology” tidbit would infer that Weta Digital will be making a return for his incarnation. Weta had previously worked on all three of the recent films. 

Interestingly enough, Wes worked closely with Weta Digital in the past on his Maze Runner sequels Mazer Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure. 

He was also set to work again with Weta for his fantasy film Mouse Guard before Disney and 20th Century Studios pulled the plug on it post-merger. The graphic novel adaptation was going to be produced by Matt Reeves with Andy Serkis taking a lead role as the villain. 

The director also mentions they’re still in the scripting and production design phase of the film but could begin “virtual production” soon.

BALL: “Well, Planet of the Apes is moving forward and we have a giant art team cranking away on some incredible concept art. We’ve got the screenplay continuing to move forward, that will take the time that it takes and so that’s all good. Planet of the Apes is moving forward baby! Not only that, but we could actually be in virtual production relatively soon because it’s largely a CG movie.”

I’m really curious if they’re going to push the franchise deep into the future side of things. As the recent trilogy only covered the settings of the final films in the franchise that took cues from the final two installments, Conquest and Battle. 

I think it’ll be interesting to see what the ape society looks like in two thousand years or at the very least a couple of hundred years. Wes can surely honor the look and legacy of the first three films while pushing the franchise in a new direction to give it new life along with showcasing what ape cities could like in the future. It also allows them to bring back Andy Serkis to play another chimpanzee character, not unlike how Roddy McDowall played Cornelius and then later on his son Caesar. 

SOURCE: DISCUSSING FILM