Before going the indie film route, Pattinson had made his name as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and, especially, as vampire Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga, so it's not surprising to find skepticism greeting his casting as the dual role of Bruce Wayne and the Dark Knight in The Batman. Not for the first time (we're talking about Michael Keaton), the skeptics were proven wrong with many agreeing that from the moment he first appears on screen in cape and cowl, he owns the part.
Now, of course, when Pattinson speaks, Hollywood is listening, beginning the question of Disney/20th Century's response to his expressed desire. He explained to Variety, "I love those Apes movies so much. There's only two movies — well, three now — where I wanted to do a sequel: the Apes movies, Sicario and Dune. I saw the Apes movies in the cinema and I just thought what he [director Matt Reeves] could do with mo-cap was just so unbelievable. If he could do that with a monkey's face, then he can get a performance out of me as well."
And then, on the Fox side of things, Steve Asbell, President of 20th Century Studios, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that there would be two or three theatrical movie titles a year from them. "We're navigating the marketplace like everyone else. There are movies like Avatar, Planet of the Apes and now Free Guy that have well-established theatrical precedence for a wide audience."
In terms of Planet of the Apes, he noted, "We are expecting a draft [of the screenplay] very shortly, and it's Wes Ball attached to direct. We hope to go by the late summer, early fall."
Josh Friedman will be writing the screenplay along with Bell.