Monday, March 31, 2014

Andy Serkis Talks Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Again

Andy Serkis talked with Collider about the sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and confirmed a third film in the series is in the works:

"The idea would be that this [Dawn] will segue into a third movie, which will lead us back to the origins, which leads us back to the very, very first movie."

"Dawn" will continue the action from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The film is set a decade after Rise's post-credits sequence where the global human population has been substantially reduced due to the Simian Flu. Meanwhile, Caesar and his fellow ape sanctuary escapees have spent the past decade expanding to a community of about 2,000 apes on the outskirts of San Francisco. The enhanced find themselves threatened by a band of human survivors. A fragile peace proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war.

 The tone is also "completely different" from the first film, as is the central message:

"The ape community, where Caesar has, you know, set up and galvanized all the apes, the chimpanzees and the orangs, and the chimps into one family, one tribe that he's the ruler of. But he’s an egalitarian leader, and so you really think you're watching a tribe at the beginning, and I'm really excited about people seeing that, and then suddenly having the rug pulled from out under their feet when the humans turn on them. I think it's really powerful, and I think important film about identity, about tribalism, about fighting for what you believe is right and being able to empathize. As it always was with these 'Apes' films, they are always about something else, the metaphor is very clear, and it's – this particular time around it’s about these two families fighting for survival, but yet knowing that if you just fight for your own family it's not necessarily the way to peace and not necessarily the way to survival."


Serkis also confirms that with advancements in Mo-Cap technology, around 90% of the film is shot on location. 'Rise' boasted a lot of 'on-set' pieces and a smattering of locations, this time it's the other way around.

"Rise" helmer Rupert Wyatt chose not to return reportedly due to the fact that the director wasn't comfortable with making the May 23rd 2014 release date the studio had originally announced. "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves takes over.

Rise star James Franco does not return instead--Zero Dark Thirty actor Jason Clarke Keri Russell Serkis, Gary Oldman Judy Greer and Kodi Smit-McPhee star.

Mark Bomback ("Live Free or Die Hard," "Unstoppable") is set to rework Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa's script. Bombeck is expected to turn in something more suited to the new director's style. This is Deja Vu On 'Rise' Silver & Jaffa wrote the initial script and then Bomback did an uncredited script rewrite.

"Contagion" scribe Scott Z. Burns took a crack at the "Dawn" script as well

Peter Chernin Dylan Clark Silver and Jaffa will produce.

The film is now targeting a July 11th 2014 release.

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