Director Wes Ball says his and Disney's new Planet of the Apes movie is not a reboot of the recent trilogy. Although Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes re-imagining was a commercial success, it failed to impress critics and Fox ultimately elected to pass on a sequel. Instead, the studio rebooted the sci-fi franchise ten years later with Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. A prequel to the original 1968 Apes film set in the present (when human civilization was still thriving), the movie featured Andy Serkis in an acclaimed motion-capture performance as Caesar, a genetically evolved chimpanzee who possesses human levels of intelligence and even becomes capable of speech.

A critical and box office hit, Rise eventually gave rise to a pair of sequels (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes) that further explored Caesar's evolution into a leader of the Ape revolution and a warrior in the battle for dominance over the earth following the collapse of human civilization at the very end of Rise. Directed by Matt Reeves, the latter two films brought newfound levels of critical respect to the franchise for their rich themes about war and tribalism and, in War, for bringing Caesar's story to a fittingly poignant conclusion. For that reason, fans have been concerned by the reports of Disney and Ball developing a Planet of the Apes reboot, following the Mouse House's purchase of Fox. Except, according to Ball, that's not actually happening.

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Following a recent report that claimed the new Planet of the Apes film will be a reboot (echoing a similar claim from last December), Ball took to his Twitter account to set the record straight. You can read his message, below.

No doubt, many people will be glad to hear Ball isn't working on a reboot of the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy or planning to hit the reset button in some fashion. Serkis' trilogy did a great job depicting Caesar's journey, and it would be a waste to ignore that in favor of rehashing the same plot points already covered in the last three films. Back when War came out, Reeves even talked about how the Planet of the Apes series could continue its story beyond Caesar's death and explore what happens next in those movies' post-apocalyptic setting. There's still plenty of time unaccounted for between the Apes taking over the earth (as seen in the original 1968 film) and where War left things, so it only makes sense for Ball to explore what occured in-between those two stories. Fortunately, it sounds like that's exactly what he's planning to do.

Ball's far from a stranger to dystopian sci-fi fare, either. He made his name directing The Maze Runner trilogy and was going to helm Fox's Mouse Guard comic book adaptation before the project was cancelled post-Disney purchase. Instead, he will try his hand at another big-budget tentpole featuring non-human motion capture characters in the form of Planet of the Apes, which should play to his strengths at crafting sci-fi action and set pieces. With a little luck, he will do right by Caesar's legacy along the way.

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Source: Wes Ball