Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
WORDS PAUL BRADSHAW
Great apes: Caesar (Andy Serkis) gives Koba (Toby Kebbell) a hand, before and after CG conversion.
88 | Total Film | Summer 2014
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
DIRECTOR Matt Reeves STARRING Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Keri Russell, Judy Greer ETA 17 July 2014 ew Orleans, June 2013. It’s almost a decade since Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana. Nine years on, the city is almost back to its old self – but from where Total Film is standing, nothing much has changed. A derelict crossroads on the edge of the French Quarter serves as a grim reminder of what a few years of neglect can do – vines crawling over broken roads, rubble piled in empty doorways and an eerie stillness cutting through the stifling heat. Two men walk slowly into the middle of the street and size each other up. One of them raises his arm and points off into the distance, “Human home!” he growls, before sweeping an arm behind him, “Ape home!” He might be wearing a onesie – and he might be acting like a monkey – but no one’s laughing. This is Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, the sequel to 2011’s smart, sharp, serious blockbuster reboot set 10 years after a simian virus wiped out 90 per cent of the human population. “I wanted it to be Apocalypse Now… I wanted it to be Lawrence Of Arabia,” smiles director Matt Reeves, before stopping to reconsider, “No, think The Godfather with apes…” Stepping in to fill the director’s chair after Rupert Wyatt left it vacant mid-way through pre-production, Reeves (looking for something different after Cloverfield and Let Me In) was more than happy to take the reins. “I’ve been a Planet Of The Apes fanatic since I was a kid,” says Reeves, who sent away for make-up kits from the 1968 original when he was a teenager. “It was my Star Wars. They showed me where they were going with the film – which wasn’t even really Rupert’s direction – and it wasn’t the movie I wanted to do either. I wanted to go into the woods and do an ape creation movie…” Luckily, the producers agreed to Reeves’ change of direction and started from scratch, allowing Dawn to tell a much earlier chapter of the story arc than originally planned. “There’s a part of this franchise that allows us to indulge in watching the human race being destroyed,” says Reeves, “But I was really interested in this being the moment where things still could have been. >> The chance that was missed.”
totalfilm.com
Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 89
Ten years on, Caesar – Andy Serkis’ GM chimp who went from James Franco’s house pet, to abused lab rat, to revolutionary leader – is quite at home in the woods. With a wife, a son and a colony of super-smart apes living peacefully alongside him, the violence of Rise (and most of humanity) is practically forgotten. That is, until a group of human survivors led by Jason Clarke’s ex-architect Malcolm accidentally wander into ape town – lighting the fuse of another full-blown war. All of which brings us to a sweaty crossroads in New Orleans and a stand off between Clarke and Serkis – each with an army of horses and hundreds of extras behind them – not to mention a small group of sunburnt journalists fanning themselves off camera. “Caesar’s a natural leader,” reflects Serkis, dressed in a grey unitard covered in hundreds of tiny yellow dots, each corresponding to a different muscle on his body.
90 | Total Film | Summer xxx 2011 2014
“He’s trying to rule democratically but he has an enormous amount of responsibility: he’s trying to live peacefully with the humans beings; to hold onto the tenets that he believes are valuable; to galvanise all the apes who came to him; and he also has a family of his own to cope with.” But he’s not the only one with problems. Struggling to survive in the post-apocalyptic wilderness without food, water or power, the few remaining humans have had a pretty tough time of it – building a refuge in an abandoned shopping centre that makes for another giant downtown set. “Malcolm’s a good guy in a weird world,” says a tanned, tired Clarke, taking shelter from the heat in a mercifully air-conditioned 3D-viewing tent. “The world’s gotten awfully strange since all hell broke loose. He’s a guy trying to find his way, trying to bring some semblance of life out of chaos and bleakness. He’s a good guy – I think.”
Not that it’s too easy to know who the real bad guys are, with Gary Oldman’s volatile resistance leader Dreyfus coming close but still falling short. “He’s not really a villain at all,” stresses Oldman, dressed, nevertheless, all in black. “He’s sort of contaminated by what he’s experienced, as anyone might be. I see him as heroic.” “Everyone has been damaged and broken,” adds Keri Russell, rounding out the human cast alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee as Malcolm’s girlfriend and son. “Everyone has lost people. Loved ones and children and parents. Those that are left behind are real survivors and fighters.” amn dirty humans are all well and good, but it is, after all, the planet of the apes – and it’s the monkey business that we really want to see. With Serkis returning to the role of Caesar at the head of an entire ape army – all of whom have developed intelligence enough to understand sign language, ride horses and wield weapons – the call went out for actors who could not only handle the emotional range of the story but who were also able to keep up with the unique demands of performance capture work. “I had my audition with Andy at his studio in London called The Imaginarium and I fibbed to
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Monkey business: (left and below, top) Malcolm (Jason Clarke) faces off with Caesar’s army and (below, bottom) Gary Oldman on set.
totalfilm.com
everyone that I went to a dentist appointment,” laughs Toby Kebbell, playing the one-eyed, man-hating chimp Koba. “Anyway, I went and I met him, and I put this suit on and felt like everyone could see my winky. It felt awful.” Joining Serkis and Kebbel in ‘The Volume’ (the name for the performance capture arena covered from every angle by up to 80 reference cameras), Judy Greer and Nick Thurston play Caesar’s wife and teenage son, Cornelia and River, alongside a small group of supporting artists playing all the other parts. “We only have nine actors and five stunt people” explains Terry Notary, supporting ape and lead movement coach, also smothered in tiny dots. “I pulled together the stunt guys from a parkour team. Most of the stunts we do are going to be real. There’s not going to be wires or stuff like that. Any time an ape left the ground in the first film it was a CG character, and I personally feel it lost some of its reality.” Mentored during nine weeks of ‘ape school’ before shooting began and buoyed by his incredible performance in the first film, it’s pretty obvious who the king of the swingers is on set – with everyone on both sides of the camera gushing about Serkis’ performance and integrity. “It’s an ape family with Andy at the head,” laughs Kebbell. “It’s like having a great drama teacher. He makes the incredibly difficult seem effortless and, man, he works hard, it’s no joke. It sounds so gushy, and I don’t want to jinx it or sound like a fool, but I believe Andy is making history.” Now the unofficial ambassador of performance capture, Serkis somehow managed to juggle Dawn with pre-production work on his own directing debut, Animal Farm – the first feature to be completely shot in The Imaginarium. “It’s interesting how the perception of performance capture has changed over the years,” says Serkis, as relaxed and chatty as ever in his greys, keeping one eye on the sky as the heat wave threatens to turn into a storm. “It is pure acting. It’s not more than if you were playing a character which had a costume and makeup – except you’re putting on the costume and makeup after the fact. It’s still all down to performances. If the performances aren’t arrived at on the day, it’s not something that can be added in the computer. “It could go so easily wrong with this material,” he adds. “You can make it a special effects movie. You can make it a big blockbuster without any heart or resonance or truth. I think that was why the last one was >>
(Never dionus) One of cinema’s most hardy survivors – the ability to shed its skin means it has stayed (quite) sprightly. Has also learned to adapt to its surroundings, seeing off new predators like Jason Bourne to remain top of the action/thriller food chain. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Expecto neverendus) Coming out of hibernation, this popular behemoth is still going strong – finding a new, prequel-based habitat in which to thrive. Younger competitors have flourished, but its size means this is still the dominant member of the YA species. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Pleasedont disappointus) This sci-fi species has changed beyond recognition, altering its appearance and spawning new offspring that bears little resemblance to its original form. With a new mating partner, hopes are high for offspring with their ancestors traits. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Cantunderstand thefuss) A lively critter in its infancy, this sea-dwelling member of the blockbuster family has become bloated. It plods along, but its confusing behaviour has left it open to attacks from its faster cousins. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Triggerfinger arthritus) Once at the peak of its physical prowess, this bruiser continues to survive past its natural life span. Mobility issues, younger rivals and the pack turning on itself means it may not be able to hold on much longer... CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 91
successful, because people were emotionally moved by it. And I think the same thing will happen with this one on a much more epic scale.” etting his first word out halfway through Rise (“No!”), dialogue is an extra consideration for Serkis in the sequel – but don’t expect the apes to walk around monologuing just yet. “Caesar knows that he’s an animal, but he’s trying to use his intellect,” Serkis explains, suggesting that the evolutionary cycle of the apes is somewhere around 50 per cent towards wherever they’re heading. “He can intellectualise and philosophise, but he can’t yet articulate his language. That’s to come. But what’s there is based on chimp sounds. We’re using mouth guards to stop the articulation being so strong, so the consonants aren’t so clipped.” So what exactly does it take to play a monkey? Watching Serkis, Notary and Kebbell slink around the set – backs hunched, arms loose, eyes flashing – it seems like it’s all in the joints. “What I found throughout this film is that it’s not about imitation at all,” explains Notary, sitting with statuesque poise even in a sweltering catering tent. “It’s all about going back into ourselves and finding the stillness that apes have. That quiet intelligence, that deep presence that we are slowly losing as we become cultured and conditioned as human beings. Listening and being open and sensitive and vulnerable. Widening your perception. It’s a mindset. We have all that. We just throw it away. “When we get out of a chair,” he demonstrates, all elbows and knees, “You throw your neck forward, you clutch your leg, you use your arm to get out. When apes get up, there’s an economy…” He slides up out of his chair like an animal and the subtle difference is startling. “It comes from not second-guessing. There’s an absoluteness to it. We have that in us, but we’ve become so mind-driven and multitasked.”
92 | Total Film | Summer xxx 2011 2014
Not that it’s something that comes naturally to everyone. “It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done, crouching down for 12 hours a day,” winces Kebbell. “My hips didn’t want it, they weren’t happy. You quad on your knuckles and it breaks up your hands. I’m constantly eating the microdots on my lips by accident. It feels weird to stand up, so I hunch permanently. I’ve even started eating bananas the way apes do!” Constant backache. Mumbley mouth guards. Broken knuckles. Intense heat. Is there anything else that could have made the production any worse? How about the decision to shoot in native 3D, outside, in the rain… “I really wanted the movie to seem naturalistic and real,” laughs Reeves, defending his decision to
take the complex performance capture process out of the studio and into the wild for the first time. “I knew that I was sentencing us all to a brutal shoot… We wanted rain, we wanted to actually put the apes in those environments and we wanted to use as much available light as possible. The 3D rig is basically two cameras connected together, so it’s twice as heavy and you have to put it on a crane. So suddenly we’re shooting a scene that could have been done on the stage, and instead we’re on a steep, muddy hillside in Vancouver in the pouring rain. And then we’ve got 80 mo-cap cameras set up in the trees capturing our actors’ performances…” With the digital artists at WETA working on postproduction, layering the composite location
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Bring out the chimp: (main) the apes prepare for war, (opposite) Andy Serkis in action and (below) Caesar checks the battlements.
PAGE TURNERS
SCI-FI BOOK ADAPS ON THE ETA October 2015 HORIZON… The latest in a long line of adaptations of Mary Shelly’s 1818 novel (written by Chronicle’s Max Landis), Lucky Number Slevin’s Paul McGuigan directs James McAvoy as the mad scientist and Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant, Igor. “Max has given Igor a backstory,” says Radcliffe. “It’s about these two guys at the forefront of science.”.
ETA TBC This time-travelling, alien-stuffed WW2 satire, based on Kurt Vonnegut‘s 1969 novel, is just one of the films on Guillermo del Toro’s crowded to-do list – a team-up with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Universal is backing the film, but GdT won’t go into production without a script… “Charlie is very expensive!” he says. “But I’ll work it out.”
GETTY, WENN.COM, WIREIMAGE
ETA TBC
shots with the groundbreaking visual effects is a long, painstaking process. Catching up with Total Film almost a year later in the final stages of editing, Reeves is exhausted. “Oh my god. It’s crazy. Insane. This has been the most challenging movie I’ve ever worked on. I thought Cloverfield was crazy, but this is so much beyond that – so much beyond the last Apes,” he gasps, somehow still buzzing with enthusiasm. And he’s not the only one. “I don’t know what they’ve been doing in the lab since the last movie, but the technology has moved on a hundred-fold,” raves Oldman, fresh from his first glimpse at the
totalfilm.com
finished footage in London. “It’s quite stunning to watch. I’m not a big special effects guy (give me Peter Sellers any day…) but I was absolutely fucking blown away with the artistry in this movie.” Away from the stifling heat of Louisiana, the freezing rains of Vancouver and the grey Lycra of The Volume, Reeves’ heroic ambition is growing again – already planning the next Apes sequel for 2016. “We have a lot of ideas about the next one,” he enthuses. “I was really aware of where this film fits into the franchise from where Rise sort of proposed the beginning was and where Planet Of The Apes, the original, got to. When [Charlton] Heston comes into that world, he doesn’t even know that it’s Earth. I mean it’s so radically different from our world!” He takes a breath to stop himself getting too carried away… “Where we go from here is very clear.” TF Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes opens 17 July.
This adap of William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk classic – about a computer hacker attempting the ultimate hack – is a long-gestating passion project for Cube director Vincenzo Natali, who’s attempting to raise the $60m budget alongside Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “It’s not on the fast track, but it’s very much alive,’ he says.
ETA TBC Warner Bros’ adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi fantasy – a tale of warring factions in post-apocalyptic America – has been in development since 2011. Directors David Yates, Ben Affleck and Out Of The Furnace’s Scott Cooper have all come and gone, though the project is still in development – with Stuck In Love’s Josh Boone currently attached to succeed them.
ETA TBC Set among the suriviors of a post-apocalyptic Earth, Hugh Howley’s series of sci-fi novellas – self-published via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform – has been tapped for a big-screen adap by Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free, with The Disappearance Of Alice Creed’s J. Blakeson attached to direct. Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 93
Great apes: Caesar (Andy Serkis) gives Koba (Toby Kebbell) a hand, before and after CG conversion.
88 | Total Film | Summer 2014
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
DIRECTOR Matt Reeves STARRING Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Keri Russell, Judy Greer ETA 17 July 2014 ew Orleans, June 2013. It’s almost a decade since Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana. Nine years on, the city is almost back to its old self – but from where Total Film is standing, nothing much has changed. A derelict crossroads on the edge of the French Quarter serves as a grim reminder of what a few years of neglect can do – vines crawling over broken roads, rubble piled in empty doorways and an eerie stillness cutting through the stifling heat. Two men walk slowly into the middle of the street and size each other up. One of them raises his arm and points off into the distance, “Human home!” he growls, before sweeping an arm behind him, “Ape home!” He might be wearing a onesie – and he might be acting like a monkey – but no one’s laughing. This is Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, the sequel to 2011’s smart, sharp, serious blockbuster reboot set 10 years after a simian virus wiped out 90 per cent of the human population. “I wanted it to be Apocalypse Now… I wanted it to be Lawrence Of Arabia,” smiles director Matt Reeves, before stopping to reconsider, “No, think The Godfather with apes…” Stepping in to fill the director’s chair after Rupert Wyatt left it vacant mid-way through pre-production, Reeves (looking for something different after Cloverfield and Let Me In) was more than happy to take the reins. “I’ve been a Planet Of The Apes fanatic since I was a kid,” says Reeves, who sent away for make-up kits from the 1968 original when he was a teenager. “It was my Star Wars. They showed me where they were going with the film – which wasn’t even really Rupert’s direction – and it wasn’t the movie I wanted to do either. I wanted to go into the woods and do an ape creation movie…” Luckily, the producers agreed to Reeves’ change of direction and started from scratch, allowing Dawn to tell a much earlier chapter of the story arc than originally planned. “There’s a part of this franchise that allows us to indulge in watching the human race being destroyed,” says Reeves, “But I was really interested in this being the moment where things still could have been. >> The chance that was missed.”
totalfilm.com
Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 89
Ten years on, Caesar – Andy Serkis’ GM chimp who went from James Franco’s house pet, to abused lab rat, to revolutionary leader – is quite at home in the woods. With a wife, a son and a colony of super-smart apes living peacefully alongside him, the violence of Rise (and most of humanity) is practically forgotten. That is, until a group of human survivors led by Jason Clarke’s ex-architect Malcolm accidentally wander into ape town – lighting the fuse of another full-blown war. All of which brings us to a sweaty crossroads in New Orleans and a stand off between Clarke and Serkis – each with an army of horses and hundreds of extras behind them – not to mention a small group of sunburnt journalists fanning themselves off camera. “Caesar’s a natural leader,” reflects Serkis, dressed in a grey unitard covered in hundreds of tiny yellow dots, each corresponding to a different muscle on his body.
90 | Total Film | Summer xxx 2011 2014
“He’s trying to rule democratically but he has an enormous amount of responsibility: he’s trying to live peacefully with the humans beings; to hold onto the tenets that he believes are valuable; to galvanise all the apes who came to him; and he also has a family of his own to cope with.” But he’s not the only one with problems. Struggling to survive in the post-apocalyptic wilderness without food, water or power, the few remaining humans have had a pretty tough time of it – building a refuge in an abandoned shopping centre that makes for another giant downtown set. “Malcolm’s a good guy in a weird world,” says a tanned, tired Clarke, taking shelter from the heat in a mercifully air-conditioned 3D-viewing tent. “The world’s gotten awfully strange since all hell broke loose. He’s a guy trying to find his way, trying to bring some semblance of life out of chaos and bleakness. He’s a good guy – I think.”
Not that it’s too easy to know who the real bad guys are, with Gary Oldman’s volatile resistance leader Dreyfus coming close but still falling short. “He’s not really a villain at all,” stresses Oldman, dressed, nevertheless, all in black. “He’s sort of contaminated by what he’s experienced, as anyone might be. I see him as heroic.” “Everyone has been damaged and broken,” adds Keri Russell, rounding out the human cast alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee as Malcolm’s girlfriend and son. “Everyone has lost people. Loved ones and children and parents. Those that are left behind are real survivors and fighters.” amn dirty humans are all well and good, but it is, after all, the planet of the apes – and it’s the monkey business that we really want to see. With Serkis returning to the role of Caesar at the head of an entire ape army – all of whom have developed intelligence enough to understand sign language, ride horses and wield weapons – the call went out for actors who could not only handle the emotional range of the story but who were also able to keep up with the unique demands of performance capture work. “I had my audition with Andy at his studio in London called The Imaginarium and I fibbed to
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Monkey business: (left and below, top) Malcolm (Jason Clarke) faces off with Caesar’s army and (below, bottom) Gary Oldman on set.
totalfilm.com
everyone that I went to a dentist appointment,” laughs Toby Kebbell, playing the one-eyed, man-hating chimp Koba. “Anyway, I went and I met him, and I put this suit on and felt like everyone could see my winky. It felt awful.” Joining Serkis and Kebbel in ‘The Volume’ (the name for the performance capture arena covered from every angle by up to 80 reference cameras), Judy Greer and Nick Thurston play Caesar’s wife and teenage son, Cornelia and River, alongside a small group of supporting artists playing all the other parts. “We only have nine actors and five stunt people” explains Terry Notary, supporting ape and lead movement coach, also smothered in tiny dots. “I pulled together the stunt guys from a parkour team. Most of the stunts we do are going to be real. There’s not going to be wires or stuff like that. Any time an ape left the ground in the first film it was a CG character, and I personally feel it lost some of its reality.” Mentored during nine weeks of ‘ape school’ before shooting began and buoyed by his incredible performance in the first film, it’s pretty obvious who the king of the swingers is on set – with everyone on both sides of the camera gushing about Serkis’ performance and integrity. “It’s an ape family with Andy at the head,” laughs Kebbell. “It’s like having a great drama teacher. He makes the incredibly difficult seem effortless and, man, he works hard, it’s no joke. It sounds so gushy, and I don’t want to jinx it or sound like a fool, but I believe Andy is making history.” Now the unofficial ambassador of performance capture, Serkis somehow managed to juggle Dawn with pre-production work on his own directing debut, Animal Farm – the first feature to be completely shot in The Imaginarium. “It’s interesting how the perception of performance capture has changed over the years,” says Serkis, as relaxed and chatty as ever in his greys, keeping one eye on the sky as the heat wave threatens to turn into a storm. “It is pure acting. It’s not more than if you were playing a character which had a costume and makeup – except you’re putting on the costume and makeup after the fact. It’s still all down to performances. If the performances aren’t arrived at on the day, it’s not something that can be added in the computer. “It could go so easily wrong with this material,” he adds. “You can make it a special effects movie. You can make it a big blockbuster without any heart or resonance or truth. I think that was why the last one was >>
(Never dionus) One of cinema’s most hardy survivors – the ability to shed its skin means it has stayed (quite) sprightly. Has also learned to adapt to its surroundings, seeing off new predators like Jason Bourne to remain top of the action/thriller food chain. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Expecto neverendus) Coming out of hibernation, this popular behemoth is still going strong – finding a new, prequel-based habitat in which to thrive. Younger competitors have flourished, but its size means this is still the dominant member of the YA species. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Pleasedont disappointus) This sci-fi species has changed beyond recognition, altering its appearance and spawning new offspring that bears little resemblance to its original form. With a new mating partner, hopes are high for offspring with their ancestors traits. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Cantunderstand thefuss) A lively critter in its infancy, this sea-dwelling member of the blockbuster family has become bloated. It plods along, but its confusing behaviour has left it open to attacks from its faster cousins. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
(Triggerfinger arthritus) Once at the peak of its physical prowess, this bruiser continues to survive past its natural life span. Mobility issues, younger rivals and the pack turning on itself means it may not be able to hold on much longer... CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 91
successful, because people were emotionally moved by it. And I think the same thing will happen with this one on a much more epic scale.” etting his first word out halfway through Rise (“No!”), dialogue is an extra consideration for Serkis in the sequel – but don’t expect the apes to walk around monologuing just yet. “Caesar knows that he’s an animal, but he’s trying to use his intellect,” Serkis explains, suggesting that the evolutionary cycle of the apes is somewhere around 50 per cent towards wherever they’re heading. “He can intellectualise and philosophise, but he can’t yet articulate his language. That’s to come. But what’s there is based on chimp sounds. We’re using mouth guards to stop the articulation being so strong, so the consonants aren’t so clipped.” So what exactly does it take to play a monkey? Watching Serkis, Notary and Kebbell slink around the set – backs hunched, arms loose, eyes flashing – it seems like it’s all in the joints. “What I found throughout this film is that it’s not about imitation at all,” explains Notary, sitting with statuesque poise even in a sweltering catering tent. “It’s all about going back into ourselves and finding the stillness that apes have. That quiet intelligence, that deep presence that we are slowly losing as we become cultured and conditioned as human beings. Listening and being open and sensitive and vulnerable. Widening your perception. It’s a mindset. We have all that. We just throw it away. “When we get out of a chair,” he demonstrates, all elbows and knees, “You throw your neck forward, you clutch your leg, you use your arm to get out. When apes get up, there’s an economy…” He slides up out of his chair like an animal and the subtle difference is startling. “It comes from not second-guessing. There’s an absoluteness to it. We have that in us, but we’ve become so mind-driven and multitasked.”
92 | Total Film | Summer xxx 2011 2014
Not that it’s something that comes naturally to everyone. “It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done, crouching down for 12 hours a day,” winces Kebbell. “My hips didn’t want it, they weren’t happy. You quad on your knuckles and it breaks up your hands. I’m constantly eating the microdots on my lips by accident. It feels weird to stand up, so I hunch permanently. I’ve even started eating bananas the way apes do!” Constant backache. Mumbley mouth guards. Broken knuckles. Intense heat. Is there anything else that could have made the production any worse? How about the decision to shoot in native 3D, outside, in the rain… “I really wanted the movie to seem naturalistic and real,” laughs Reeves, defending his decision to
take the complex performance capture process out of the studio and into the wild for the first time. “I knew that I was sentencing us all to a brutal shoot… We wanted rain, we wanted to actually put the apes in those environments and we wanted to use as much available light as possible. The 3D rig is basically two cameras connected together, so it’s twice as heavy and you have to put it on a crane. So suddenly we’re shooting a scene that could have been done on the stage, and instead we’re on a steep, muddy hillside in Vancouver in the pouring rain. And then we’ve got 80 mo-cap cameras set up in the trees capturing our actors’ performances…” With the digital artists at WETA working on postproduction, layering the composite location
Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Bring out the chimp: (main) the apes prepare for war, (opposite) Andy Serkis in action and (below) Caesar checks the battlements.
PAGE TURNERS
SCI-FI BOOK ADAPS ON THE ETA October 2015 HORIZON… The latest in a long line of adaptations of Mary Shelly’s 1818 novel (written by Chronicle’s Max Landis), Lucky Number Slevin’s Paul McGuigan directs James McAvoy as the mad scientist and Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant, Igor. “Max has given Igor a backstory,” says Radcliffe. “It’s about these two guys at the forefront of science.”.
ETA TBC This time-travelling, alien-stuffed WW2 satire, based on Kurt Vonnegut‘s 1969 novel, is just one of the films on Guillermo del Toro’s crowded to-do list – a team-up with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Universal is backing the film, but GdT won’t go into production without a script… “Charlie is very expensive!” he says. “But I’ll work it out.”
GETTY, WENN.COM, WIREIMAGE
ETA TBC
shots with the groundbreaking visual effects is a long, painstaking process. Catching up with Total Film almost a year later in the final stages of editing, Reeves is exhausted. “Oh my god. It’s crazy. Insane. This has been the most challenging movie I’ve ever worked on. I thought Cloverfield was crazy, but this is so much beyond that – so much beyond the last Apes,” he gasps, somehow still buzzing with enthusiasm. And he’s not the only one. “I don’t know what they’ve been doing in the lab since the last movie, but the technology has moved on a hundred-fold,” raves Oldman, fresh from his first glimpse at the
totalfilm.com
finished footage in London. “It’s quite stunning to watch. I’m not a big special effects guy (give me Peter Sellers any day…) but I was absolutely fucking blown away with the artistry in this movie.” Away from the stifling heat of Louisiana, the freezing rains of Vancouver and the grey Lycra of The Volume, Reeves’ heroic ambition is growing again – already planning the next Apes sequel for 2016. “We have a lot of ideas about the next one,” he enthuses. “I was really aware of where this film fits into the franchise from where Rise sort of proposed the beginning was and where Planet Of The Apes, the original, got to. When [Charlton] Heston comes into that world, he doesn’t even know that it’s Earth. I mean it’s so radically different from our world!” He takes a breath to stop himself getting too carried away… “Where we go from here is very clear.” TF Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes opens 17 July.
This adap of William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk classic – about a computer hacker attempting the ultimate hack – is a long-gestating passion project for Cube director Vincenzo Natali, who’s attempting to raise the $60m budget alongside Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “It’s not on the fast track, but it’s very much alive,’ he says.
ETA TBC Warner Bros’ adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi fantasy – a tale of warring factions in post-apocalyptic America – has been in development since 2011. Directors David Yates, Ben Affleck and Out Of The Furnace’s Scott Cooper have all come and gone, though the project is still in development – with Stuck In Love’s Josh Boone currently attached to succeed them.
ETA TBC Set among the suriviors of a post-apocalyptic Earth, Hugh Howley’s series of sci-fi novellas – self-published via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform – has been tapped for a big-screen adap by Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free, with The Disappearance Of Alice Creed’s J. Blakeson attached to direct. Summer xxx 2011 2014 | Total Film | 93
