We can’t be alone in the thinking that the recent ‘reimagining’ of the Planet Of The Apes franchise, with Tim Burton at the helm, had all but killed off any chance of any further entries in the series. Fox apparently had high hopes for a rebooted series, but Burton’s movie – while bringing in the dollars – got such a horrible reaction that it seemed to scare everyone away.

But nothing stays dead in Hollywood for long, it seems, and now Fox has put a prequel into the early stages of production. In fact, even more than that, it seems that a director has been signed up too.

According to a report at Cinema Blend this morning, the man in the chair is Scott Frank, who directed a film we confess to not seeing, The Lookout, in 2007. We’re assured it’s some piece of work, though.

The new film will look at how the apes took over the planet, and while no release date has thus far been mooted, it seems that this is a project that’s really in quite an advanced state already. Production Weekly lists the plot outline as “The origins of how the Apes took over Earth. A hyper-intelligent chimp raised by humans incites a worldwide ape revolution and causes the downfall of mankind”.

Just don’t expect Mark Wahlberg to be in this time…

Here’s that Cinema Blend link.