This week didn’t bring too much in the way of unfortunate news, but one I found myself a bit saddened to report was Rupert Wyatt‘s departure from the spy drama Londongrad. Though this was all in favor of a sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes — and, despite the note that producers Graham King and Johnny Depp might simply wait for him to tackle the project when that was done — it was something of a mixed bag, speaking in terms of developments.

King offered up the best possible — which is to say, still not perfect — news on this front to ThePlaylist, saying that the filmmaker “loves the script,” adding his belief that “one day he’ll make it”; his pre-occupation with primates is obviously the big stopgap at the moment. If there is a best sign, to me, it’s Wyatt‘s commitment to the project, as he apparently pursued Warner Bros. about helming the script by David Scarpa — not the other, far more common way around. Still, another question mark — the involvement of Michael Fassbender — hasn’t been cleared, but King did offer the interesting note that him starring is based on “when the movie gets made.” All I can add is that, for their own sake, it would be more than sensible to let the actor hop on whenever he’s ready.

Then there’s that Tomb Raider reboot Iron Man‘s Hawk Otsby and Mark Fergus finished writing, and which King “just got [...] in about two weeks ago.” Hence, real movement may not happen for about a month or so, since the producer will “think about what direction to take that in” when the press tour for Hugo has been completed. Being a reboot, we’ll get to see “Lara Croft back to her roots, when she was growing up, becoming Lara Croft”; comparisons were made to Batman Begins and the aforementioned Apes, but those are two common examples to bring up whenever a reboot enters the conversation.

Casting, which is going to be the biggest point of speculation and interest, doesn’t look to be anywhere near started; King and his team “haven’t really focused on it,” and he says that they “won’t do anything about it until we get a script and a director.” My thoughts on a Tomb Raider reboot are admittedly a bit slim when I don’t care about it in the slightest, but I do approve of ThePlaylist’s suggestion that Hayley Atwell star. Not to be prurient here, but she certainly… fits the part.

Are you hopeful that Wyatt will helm Londongrad? What do you think of the Tomb Raider reboot?