"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and the "X-Men" franchise were big successes, but the studio passed on Seth MacFarlane's "Ted" while missing this summer with "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and the Ben Stiller comedy "The Watch."
Mark Bomback, whose writing credits include Live Free or Die Hard as well as the recent Total Recall remake, has been tapped to work on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
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Matt Reeves, stepping into the shoes originally worn by Rupert Wyatt, is directing the sequel to Fox’s 2011 hit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with the new movie continuing the story of how ultra-intelligent simian Caesar presides over the fall of human civilization.
Andy Serkis is returning as Caesar, and Peter Chernin is back as producer. Fox has set a May 23, 2014, release date.
Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, who penned the first installment, wrote the initial draft for Dawn. Scott Burns had written a draft for Wyatt but when Reeves came on board, the studio and producers wanted something tailored for Reeves.
Bomback is no stranger to the Apes world as he did uncredited script doctoring on Rise.
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Along with Die Hard and Recall, Bomback also worked on Unstoppable, the Tony Scott runaway-train thriller starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, and The Wolverine, the forthcoming installment of the Marvel mutant inhabited by Hugh Jackman. The latter two were Fox movies.
Bomback is repped by WME and Adam Shulman at Anonymous.
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