Last we heard about Fox's planned Planet of the Apes prequel, producer Peter Chernin was turning to second-tier directors like James McTeigue and the Hughes brothers in hopes they would jump at the chance to handle a reboot that nobody wants to see made. And now, according to Deadline Hollywood, they've found their man-- a director with no big-budget or sci-fi experience at all.

That man is Rupert Wyatt, who made his feature debut with 2008's crime thriller The Escapist. Apparently there's no start date yet, but Wyatt has "come aboard to develop" the film, which means he may have a hand in further building the script before picking up the camera. Given that the studio was at first hoping the likes of Kathryn Bigelow or Robert Rodriguez would take on the project, this is a major change of pace, and raises the question of exactly what kind of movie they're hoping to make. Is this the kind of thing where they pick a newbie director so they can boss him around and make the movie the studio wants (a la Marc Webb on Spider-Man)? Or does this just mean cheap cheap cheap? Hell, why not both?