Wrapping up the Planet of the Apes Trilogy: A Conversation with Matt Reeves for the Release of War for the Planet of the Apes
War For The Planet Of The Apes continues the wildly successful series of films that began with 2011’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and 2014’s Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. In the wake of the viral outbreak that devastated much of the human population, the simian community has grown more and more powerful. But simmering tensions between the two species has begun erupting into conflict, and the ramifications will be dreadful for everyone…
Andy Serkis has developed a reputation for fantastic acting work both using digital performance capture in films such as the Hobbit trilogy and Star Wars and without it in everything from Avengers: Age Of Ultron to Wild Bill and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. For the modern Planet Of The Apes franchise, he has originated and brought incredible depth and heart to the main character, Caesar.
After encountering humans for the first time in years in Dawn, War finds Caesar locked in a conflict with the survivors, a battle that he doesn’t want to fight, but must to protect the future of his ape brethren. When tragedy strikes, an embittered, war-weary Caesar embarks on a mission of revenge, one that will forever change his life. Andy talks about finding this latest stage of Caesar’s journey, welcoming a new cast member and working with director Matt Reeves…
There are some brilliant battle scenes in the movie. Where did you find your inspiration for making this a war movie?
As we start War we are right in the middle of a war. They’ve been fighting for two years. And I watched a lot of classic war films, things like Paths of Glory, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Apocalypse Now, and what excited me was this idea of bringing in some spectacle, but never forgetting that in the foreground of any good war film you are always following the characters. I was trying to work with this balance between the grand and the intimate. So we shot the film on 65mm with this beautiful Alexa [camera] system that uses these great lenses. They have this beautiful portraiture quality. You see the apes dwarfed by the landscape but on the other hand you see this incredible detail on their faces. That was really exciting for me.
The film closes the trilogy but opens the door for a whole new ape world…
For me, what these films had been was a story about the creation of the legend of Caesar, that he comes from these humble beginnings in Rise and leads a revolution. He is just the leader to navigate towards peace in Dawn, and he fails. In War I wanted to put him through a last test that would make him become the seminal figure in all ape history; all apes would look back towards him and say, ‘He is the one. He is the one who did this for us.’ He is the ape Moses! And I wanted to leave that story in a place that implies a long future ahead. The fun thing about these movies is that we start by knowing the ending because of the 1968 movie. So with Rise you already knew it would become the Planet of the Apes. The fun was watching how it becomes the planet of the apes. And that is true for all these films. Each of the worlds from Rise to Dawn to War is very different from the Shaffner film. It doesn’t look like that world yet. It is like an ape Russian novel; we’re going chapter after chapter and we look at these characters as they struggle in the landscape, as it slowly becomes the Planet of the Apes.
War For The Planet of The Apes Film Page | War For The Planet of The Apes Review
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES IS AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL NOW AND ON BLU-RAY AND DVD FROM 27TH NOVEMBER
No Comment