This is a little bit silly considering they aren’t exactly giving you much to go on, but 20th Century Fox and WETA have released the following four-second look at the digital work that has gone in to creating the apes for the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is due in theaters on August 5, or whatever release date they decide to change it to next.
The big boast here is WETA Digital (Avatar and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) are creating photo-realistic apes rather than using costumed actors for the film, which stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar. There’s no word on whether that is Serkis as Caesar, but I am going to go ahead and assume it is for whatever that’s worth.
As far as the video goes, it looks good, but I also think costumed actors have proven to be highly effective such as the apes in 2001, and while the film was no good, the costumes and makeup work in Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake was stellar.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy serving as an origin story for the Planet of the Apes franchise that began in 1968. Check out the short video below and then, on Wednesday, April 13 at 2:30PM PDT, the first footage from the film – including a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the apes – will be shown on Facebook.
