That damn dirty new PLANET OF THE APES movie is still alive
That Planet of the Apes reboot we told you was dead on January 8th, is in actual fact still very much alive according to The Vulture. Turns out when writer/director Scott Frank and producer Scott Rudin bailed, 20th Century Fox weren't intending to save the franchise for a rainy day (aka' when Avatar money wasn't rolling in), but instead were "more determined than ever to make the film, bringing in a new writer and producer team. Peter Chernin (last year drafted from Fox News Corp to Fox movies) has been brought on as the new producer with Street Kings writer Jamie Moss hired to improve the screenplay's structure, with original writers Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (The Relic) back to fix the dialogue. So it's almost a completely new draft then? 
The Vulture claims Frank/Rudin left the project when they refused to adhere to Fox's requirements for what a Planet of the Apes movie should be. What this effectively means is the hiring of as many new writers as they have, along with a new producer is a radical change of tone from Fox on the movie Frank was making...
Franks Apes script, code-named Caesar, showed how genetic experiments on apes led to their evolutionary eclipse of humans. "Caesar" refers to the genetically altered leader of the simian rebellion, so dubbed because the ape was capable of grand strategic thinking on par with Julius Caesar (whose own surname means "hairy" in Latin). The "Caesar" code name also foreshadowed the script's plot: Just as the actual Julius Caesar set Rome on the path to the Roman Empire, the experimental ape's escape sets in motion his fellow hirsute hominids' (wait for it ... ) guerrilla war and subsequent dominance.Where things get real interesting is when we delve a little into the past. Well before Tim Burton was hastily handed the reigns to the ape franchise at the turn of the millenium, way back in 1992, Chernin (then head of Fox Entertainment & a huge Apes fan) ploughed millions into a movie titled Return of the Apes, a pitch which had Oliver Stone attached as executive produce and even Arnold Schwarzenegger attached as the lead.
Chernin loved screenwriter Terry Hayes' (The Road Warrior, From Hell) script calling it "one of the best had ever read". That project centered on a geneticist who time-travels back to the Paleolithic Era, where he must help humans win a war against highly evolved apes and protect a young girl whose genes will ultimately save mankind from a plague. That movie of course never happened. Could we see some of the those ideas resurrected again - or will Fox keep with the basic jist of Caesar, a man vs. apes epic war movie more in keeping with Frank's vision? Maybe we'll be closer to the truth in a month or so, as the search for a new director is already underway - though I still say this franchise is better left as a relic of great science fiction cinema.