The Planet of the Apes franchise from 20th Century is getting a new film with Owen Teague portraying the lead primate. The studio now has Wes Ball as the director with plans to begin production by the end of 2022.
An exclusive from Deadline reports that the IP is in high priority for the studio upon Disney’s acquisition. Ball has the script in development since 2019 and is also in touch with VFX teams for the project. Just a few months ago, executives got excited after Ball presented the script. They look forward to the possibilities that lie in the new story for the fans.
Owen Teague Leads 20th Century’s Next Planet Of The Apes
Image: 20th Century
By July, the studio began testing for actors to be cast in the project. Only recently, Owen Teague impressed the executives and received the offer for the lead primate. The majority of the characters for the movie are still open for casting.
Previous movies for Planet of the Apes premiered prior to the Disney acquisition. With 9 titles in the franchise and a total budget of $529.8M, Planet of the Apes generated $2.1B in the worldwide box office. The whole franchise branches from the novel that Pierre Boulle wrote back in 1963 La Planète des singes. The very first movie adaptation of the novel is Planet of the Apes which premiered February 8, 1968. Back then, it had the budget of $5.8M that churned in $33.4M in worldwide box office.
More recent movies were 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 2014 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and 2017 War for the Planet of the Apes. The new movies explained how the apes came to their sentience with the lead primate Caesar. The three movies covered the life span of Caesar at the same time showing how the world changes as the intelligent apes grew in number.
Owen Teague Leads 20th Century’s Next Planet Of The Apes
Image: 20th Century
With the trilogy has closed the chapter of Caesar, his son survives with the other apes. Will the new storyline pick up where the 2017 movie left off? Or is Ball presenting an altogether different film based on the novel Planet of the Apes?
Fans will be familiar with Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter of the 2017 It and 2019 It Chapter Two. Other recent projects under his belt are Gone in the Night, To Leslie, Montana Story, The Stand and many others. Teague is also going to be quite busy due to other projects besides Planet of the Apes. Upcoming projects include Beth and Don, Eileen, The Pitch and Reptile.
As for the movie, fans are on the fence about the news. As most new iterations would have some skepticism on their path, Planet of the Apes will not be different in this regard. The whole story is still under wraps which makes other fans hopeful as well. At this point, it’s only natural that Disney will require 20th Century to make a new movie. As fans, we can only hope that they do the franchise good.
