After his incredible work on The Maze Runner films, all eyes were on director Wes Ball as fans wondered what was to come next. And now, his latest project, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is just a few days away from its release and the expectations are already skyrocketing. Soon, Wes Ball will be directing a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda.
Working on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes would not have been an easy task and Wes Ball must have come across his fair share of ups and downs. However, he must have also learned quite a few important lessons along the way. The lessons that he swears he will be taking with him to the set of The Legend of Zelda.
The Lessons Wes Ball Learnt from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place nearly 300 years after Caesar’s death in War for the Planet of the Apes. Before agreeing to direct the standalone sequel, Wes Ball was hesitant about the fact that this film would unfairly get compared to the previous films. Finally, he realized that while Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel, it doesn’t have to pick up from where War for the Planet of the Apes left off. Thus, this allowed Ball to let his imagination run wild.
During his time on the film, Ball learned quite a few lessons on filmmaking which he will be applying to the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda to make it as perfect as possible.
During an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit, Ball took some time out to answer a bunch of fan questions. When a user asked him, “What lessons from Apes will you carry with you to Zelda?” Ball had the perfect reply.
“Keep the money on the screen. Be ambitious. Be confident in the talent around you. Try to do something great.”
Clearly, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes taught Ball important lessons that will help him on his journey as a filmmaker, even beyond The Legend of Zelda.
Wes Ball Doesn’t Believe in Having Blinders On
Ball has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders as he is going to be the first director to bring the beloved video game The Legend of Zelda to life. In an interview with Gizmodo’s i09, Ball talked about his time on The Maze Runner films, a franchise that already had an intense fan base thanks to the popularity of the books they were based on. Thanks to this, Ball learned how to deal with the fans’ expectations without disappointing them.
Ball continued that whether it was The Maze Runner or Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, he wasn’t wearing “blinders” while making the film. He promises to do the same with The Legend of Zelda.
“It’s the same thing I learned on The Maze Runner movie on a smaller scale. I think it had sold like five million copies of books when we started that movie. But the fan base was loud and intense. And so I learned a little bit of that. Expectations came there and they told me when I got it wrong. Same thing on [Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes]. And I understood. I don’t have blinders on.”
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He continued that he knows what he is getting himself into and he wouldn’t have done Zelda if he was not fully prepared in the first place.
“I know what I’m going into. I would not have done it unless I thought I was capable of doing it. I wouldn’t have done this movie if I didn’t think I was capable of doing it. Hopefully I have. We’ll see. But I grew up playing Zelda, dreaming about Zelda, thinking about Zelda. It’s an important thing to me, so I will do my best to not mess it up.”
Ball sure sounds quite confident in himself and his skills as a filmmaker and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be. however, only time will tell if both his upcoming films impress the audience or not.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes releases in theatres on May 10.
