Even though they apparently had a script from Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa that they liked, once a new director boards a project, tweaks happen, and so that's what's going on with "Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes." Surviving a brief scare after Rupert Wyatt bailed, Matt Reeves ("Cloverfield," "Let Me In") is tackling the sequel and a new writer is coming on board.
Mark Bomback will do some work on the script, and the news is certainly…troubling. His resume speaks for itself. Various franchise movies have been touched by his mediocre pen ("Race To Witch Mountain," "Total Recall," "Live Free Or Die Hard") and while he is credited on "The Wolverine" which everyone is jazzed about mostly because it can't be any worse than "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," that's hardly an endorsement. But in Reeves we trust, and his vision is what will be guiding whatever work Bomback does, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. Also, Bomback did uncredited work on the "Rise Of The Planet Apes" script, so he's certainly comfortable with the terrain.
And in case you're wonder what happened with "Contagion" scribe Scott Z. Burns who was attached in the spring? He wrote a draft for Wyatt, but Bomback's script will be more attuned for Reeves' sensibilties.
The wheels continue to turn on the movie which will lens next year and hit theaters on May 23, 2014. [THR]
