The Kidd here...
I absolutely love Matt Reeves as a filmmaker, and look forward to seeing the story he's going to tell with DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, but I think it came as a shock to most of us when we learned that Rupert Wyatt, director of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, would be walking away from the sequel. Let's not mince words here. When RISE was first announced, there weren't exactly high hopes for the film. In fact, cries of "Why?!" were quite loud and heard quite often. And yet Wyatt managed to put together a film that really was so much better than a PLANET OF THE APES prequel had any business being.
So why, after a pretty successful film that managed to be widely embraced by the public, would Rupert Wyatt leave the budding franchise behind and go onto something else?
Two words: creative differences. (You had to see that one coming.)
In an interview with What Culture, Wyatt explans very succinctly his reasons for not returning: "I had a take on the sequel which didn’t marry with the studio’s [take]. Regardless, I was hired to direct RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES against all odds, and I was given that opportunity by a studio and producers who were prepared to take a chance on me. For that I’m very grateful."
It's always a shame when parties can't get on the same page for a project like this, especially after the filmmaker proves to be a good fit for the material the first time around. 20th Century Fox pays the bills, so they have every right to do what they want with the property, but they shouldn't underestimate Wyatt's hand in making RISE as good as it was, with a lot of that credit also going to Andy Serkis in making Caesar a brilliant character to follow.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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