As War for the Planet of the Apes gets set to debut in theaters in a matter of days (July 14, to be exact), many are now counting Matt Reeves' Apes finale to cap off one of the best movie trilogies ever. So now we wonder...considering Reeves will next direct a Batman movie starring Ben Affleck, will that film perhaps kick off another set of films for the filmmaker and character, whose last trilogy under the direction of Christopher Nolan was a monster critical and box office success?
When Fandango sat down with Reeves for an extensive chat about the films that helped inspire War for the Planet of the Apes, we talked a little about that Batman movie and whether he sees it as the start of what could potentially be another Batman trilogy.
"I have ideas about an arc, but really, the important thing is just to start... you have to start with one," he said. "You know, you have to start with a story that begins something. And I would be lying if I could tell you that the arcs of Apes was already planned out, because it simply wasn't; it's one of those things where that character was so potent, and the possibility was embedded from the beginning, but exactly how you've got from A to Z is not something that existed."
Reeves added that as much as all three of the Apes films feel like they were meant to be a trilogy from the beginning, that wasn't the case -- and in one such case, the original idea for a follow-up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes was much different from what we saw in its sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
"In fact, when I came in on Dawn, the story that I wanted to tell was different from the story that they had even presented me," he said. "And so, there are these broad ideas, I think, that sort of came to mind as Rise was created, of how that story could be told, but they weren't explicitly laid-out. And when Mark and I began Dawn, we knew what our goals were, but we didn't know how we were gonna get there, and I would say that that more relates to the way that I see a Batman story, is a kind of ambition for a series of stories, but really the most important thing is gonna be to tell a vital first story."
Will we see Reeves direct multiple Batman movies? Are we far enough removed from Nolan's trilogy to anticipate a new trilogy of Batman stories? Based on Reeves' comments, it certainly sounds like they have lots of ideas of where to go -- now it's a matter of whether the audience embraces that first story.
And then there's the possibility that Reeves tells more Apes stories, too. But more on that tomorrow...
