By Jacob Hall/Sept. 11, 2017 12:00 pm EST
Deadline has the news of Ball joining Mouse Guard, which is being written by Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and produced by Matt Reeves. That second name is especially relevant since they also report that the film will make use of the performance capture technology Reeves and his team of brilliant visual effects artists perfected on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes.
Because Ball has only directed movies based on young adult books – The Maze Runner, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, and the upcoming Maze Runner: The Death Cure – I feel like people haven’t caught on to him yet. After all, he’s just some guy making YA movies, right? Just another guy following the wave of the Hunger Games series, right? Wrong! Or at least I think so because the Maze Runner movies are so much better than they have any right to be — mainly because they’re so damn well directed. Ball may be a relative newcomer to the world of feature filmmaking, but there’s a confidence to his action and pacing and sense of character that makes the Maze Runner movies feel so much more compelling than your average YA adaptation. I’ve been waiting for someone to hand him $100 million and letting him just got nuts. Mouse Guard could be the moment Ball steps up and starts really wowing us.
Mouse Guard is based on the beloved comic series written and illustrated by David Petersen. Since it began its run in 2006, the series has followed the titular group, a team of mice warriors in a medieval fantasy setting who tirelessly fight to protect their fellow rodents from all manners of threats. While I have not read the comics, I’m familiar with the world through the traditional tabletop RPG adaptation of the series, which is equal parts charming and fascinating. This has the potential to be something extraordinary and really cool, a combination of adorable animals, exciting adventure, and geeky fantasy.
In the meantime, Maze Runner: The Death Cure opens on January 26, 2018.
