Fox Announces Tentative Title, Release Date And Premise For Its New PLANET OF THE APES Project!!

I am – Hercules!! Fox just announced a date for its Planet of the Apes movie, tentatively titled "Rise of the Apes": June 24, 2011. This one will utilize motion-capture CGI simians from WETA Digital. Rupert Wyatt (“The Escapist”) directs from a screenplay by Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa ("Eye For An Eye," "The Relic"). The studio describes the premise:

Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

If the title escapes you, "The Escapist," which Wyatt also co-wrote, was a 2008 British thriller about a prison lifer (Brian Cox) who puts together a band of fellow inmates to stage a break-out. Like most Americans, I haven't seen it, but it pulled 65 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes. An AICN Sundance spy said of "The Escapist":

Overall I enjoyed this film. The acting is restrained but perfect as allowed, the characters interesting and sympathetic, and the plot engaging.

So we'll see if Wyatt does better than Tim Burton did with the last "Apes" movie -- which for me completely missed the wonder, suspense, unpredictability and sense of peril that made the old movies so fully awesome.