Rise of the Planet of the Apes received great reviews and strong box office results, raking in over $480 million worldwide, in no small thanks to Andy Serkis, whose motion capture performance even got strong Oscar buzz. 



With the success of Rise, of course a sequel is moving forward, and now The Hollywood Reporter tells us Scott Z. Burns, the screenwriter of Contagion and The Bourne Ultimatum is on board to pen the script.

The original writers on Rise, Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, were back to pen the sequel, so Burns will probably do some sort of unspecified rewrite.

As the Reporter tells us, the next Apes “is taking the story to the next level, with the apes on the path to emerge as society’s new rulers,” and that “Burns is well versed in epidemics and breakdowns of society’s orders, having penned Contagion.” 

Last year, Burns was also writing the screenplay for the big screen version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which Steven Soderberg was on board to direct, but it fell apart at the last minute.

Another interesting story hint was dropped last year when Indiewire quoted co-screenwriter Amanda Silver as saying, “We’re working on the sequel right now, and so the excitement is are they going to talk or not. Part of the challenge was how to get across what was happening between the apes without words.” 


And indeed, in the original Apes they spoke very well for themselves, which is no surprise because Rod Serling scripted their dialogue.

Also back for the next Apes are Andy Serkis, of course, as well as the director of Rise, Rupert Wyatt, with Fox eyeing a 2014 release.