While 20th Century Fox has yet to make an official announcement regarding the rumors that Rise of the Planet of the Apes helmer Rupert Wyatt will not be returning for the film’s sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, chatter continues to abound when it comes to the state of the project. The next level of such chatter now appears to lead directly to Hollywood’s version of letter to Santa: the “short list.”
Deadline Hollywood reports that the studio has cooked up a short list of filmmakers they’d potentially like to see direct the next installment of their critical and commercial darling. That list supposedly contains names like Matt Reeves (interesting, considering that it was only yesterday that news got out that Reeves had to drop out of the Twilight Zone film due to scheduling conflicts), J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, and the real head-scratcher of the bunch), Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Jeff Nichols (a personal favorite), Guillermo del Toro, Juan Antonio Bayona, and Rian Johnson (though the outlet also reports that Johnson’s reps deny that he’s “in the hunt” for the gig). Talk about a mixed bag.
An official pick and announcement should be made soon, and it will be quite interesting to see which (if any) of these names pan out.
The sequel is already slated for a May 23, 2014 release date.
