Few franchises have had a more successful or impressive reinvention in recent years as Planet of the Apes. The original series, beloved in its day, petered out by the middle of the 1970s, and the first attempt to revive it, in a 2001 film from director Tim Burton, proved disastrous. But the new prequel series, charting the descent of our human world into a planet full of those damn, dirty apes, has breathed new life into the old property. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a late-summer hit in August 2011, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes outgrossed it three years later. (It made about $30 million more in the U.S. and a whopping $220 million more worldwide.)
We recently reported that director Rupert Wyatt had stepped away from 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,' his follow up to the successful 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes.' Now a director's short-list has for his replacement been revealed, and it's fascinating.