Before summer 2011 ended, audiences were completely taken by Rupert Wyatt‘s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Its success had 20th Century Fox quickly commission for a sequel to be put into production, with Wyatt being its director once again.

However, there seems to be some trouble as Wyatt may be unable to commit to direct the sequel, which is titled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. But it’s not because he is having troubles with the studio, it’s because he feels as though he is unable to deliver the same quality of film he did with his first Apes film and make the scheduled release date of May 23rd, 2014.

There’s a feeling of déjà vu since Gary Ross departed The Hunger Games sequel for those exact same reasons, but this isn’t entirely as bad as it sounds. First it gives Wyatt a new project to pursue. While he may have been itching to get back into the director’s chair, he felt it wasn’t right to make a sequel just for the money. Deadline reports that the studio is now looking for possible replacements so that they can start getting ready for a sequel.

Plus a new director may not be so bad. While it may not have the same spirit, the new director’s vision of the film may take it into a new direction. Which has its pros and cons, but if it is the former, think of the possibilities the Apes franchise could head into.

It’s not known how much the Scott Z Burn‘s script will be affected if Wyatt does leave, but as long as studios keep pushing these difficult to meet deadlines, directors will not come back to direct their sequels. And studios will not change their minds about these things anytime soon.

[Source: Deadline]