Matt Reeves Off 'The Twilight Zone;' Now Leads Studio Short List For 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' With Guillermo Del Toro, Jeff Nichols, Rian Johnson And Others

Matt Reeves Off ‘The Twilight Zone;’ Now Leads Studio Short List For ‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ With Guillermo Del Toro, Jeff Nichols, Rian Johnson And Others

For about a year now,Let Me InandCloverfielddirectorMatt Reeveshas been attached to a new theatrical film based onThe Twilight Zone. It was just one of several projects on the director’s plate and certainly the most high profile. In that time,multiple writershad been tasked withwriting a screenplaybut, with nare a greenlight in sight after a year, it seems Reeves has decided to move on. He will no longer direct Warner Bros. newTwilight Zonemovie.

Instead, he’s now become the frontrunnerto replace Rupert Wyattas the director ofDawn of the Planet of the Apes. Also on the short list behind Reeves:J Blakeson(The Disappearance of Alice Creed),Juan Carlos Fresnadillo(28 Weeks Later),Jeff Nichols(Take Shelter),Guillermo del Toro(Hellboy),Juan Antonio Bayona(The Impossible)andRian Johnson(Looper).Read more after the jump.

Varietyreported on Reeves' departure fromThe Twilight Zone, citing “scheduling conflicts” and state that Warner Bros. has placed an “open director assignment” on the film meaning it’s wide open to the rest of Hollywood. Theyalso reportedon his new interest in theApessequel andDeadlineadded to the report as well.

Let’s start withTwilight Zone. While “scheduling conflicts” are likely the official reason, odds are those “scheduling conflicts” came from the fact that after a year of development and multiple versions of the screenplay, no one could piece together an idea that Warner Bros. was ready to make. Maybe that means the proposed budgets were too high or maybe they ideas just weren’t good enough. Either way, it’s likely that after all that time Reeves finally decided to concentrate on something else.

That something else, it seems, might have been the sequel toRise of the Planet of the Apes,Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which recently had its director leave. Wyatt left, however, because he didn’t think he could hit the release date 20th Century Fox has placed on the film: ay August 19, 2025. According to Deadline, Reeves is the #1 name on their short list which seems like a good enough reason to abandon the other franchise.

As for the other names on the short list, I’d imagine could end up in play if Reeves passes. (Meetings are reportedly happening very soon.) That is, except for Del Toro, a total pipe dream as he hasPacific Rimcurrently deep in post-production.

If Reeves passes on Apes, he’d have plenty of other options. . He’s also been developing, or at least has had his name attached to,the zombie apocalypse filmThe Passage, the Frankenstein filmThis Dark Endeavor, a new take ontheThey Liveshort storyand also signeda TV deal with 20th Century Foxjust last week. That deal was certainly a major factor in him leavingTwilight Zonebut Apes surely factored in too.

Are you sad to see Reeves leave Twilight Zone? Is he the right man for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?