Matt Reeves' New Sequel Reportedly Titled WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was one of my favorite films of last year, and I loved the way Reeves was able to take the characters right to the brink of peace before blowing it all to hell in a tragic, profound way. These films, led by Andy Serkis' amazing motion-capture performances, have become some of the best modern blockbusters around, and we're all looking forward to seeing what the director does in his next installment.

If Collider's sources are correct, he'll be taking the apes to war. The outlet reports that the title of the new film will be War of the Planet of the Apes. It makes sense, especially considering how Dawn ended (and the fact that the last film had unused shots of warships coming to San Francisco). Thematically, it lines up with Caesar's journey from essentially being a human's pet to becoming an iconic figure in ape mythology, and it'll be nice not to have to confuse this title with the other ones (shouldn't "dawn" come before "rise"?).

We know a little about what will happen to Caesar already, since Reeves spoke about it around six months ago:

"The first one is sort of how [Caesar] goes from humble beginnings to becoming a revolutionary. In 'Dawn,' he really rose to occasion of becoming a leader in really challenging and difficult times. The notion of what we're after with the third is to sort of continue that trajectory and see how he becomes a seminal figure in ape history. He almost becomes sort of like an ape Moses. A mythic status... We're trying to play out those themes and continue to sort of explore it in this universe. Exploring human nature under the guise of apes."

The sequel already has a release date of July 14th, 2017, and we'll keep you posted with more info as it becomes available. Are you looking forward to seeing the ape/human war break out?