Entertainment Weekly broke the news that Wyatt, who directed the British prison escape thriller The Escapist in 2008 before being tabbed to reboot the PotA franchise with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Wyatt brought a new level of realism to the PotA series by using motion capture techniques, and salvaged a franchise that had been slipping into the artistic morass that is “camp” for years.
Wyatt has only directed two feature films, but at least they have both been good, and his PotA stint shows he can handle a big special effects-heavy movie spectacle. The Gambit film is slated for release on October 7, 2016 (see “Best in Shows Index” for a complete listing of all the geek films in the pipe).