Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Trailer

We finally have a full trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it looks pretty damn good.

Andy Serkis will direct The Jungle Book reboot

Warner Bros. has hired Andy Serkis to direct the upcoming live-action version of The Jungle Book. Serkis is already on board to produce the film alongside Steve Kloves and Jonathan Cavendish. This is Warner Bros. attempt to compete with the Disney produced Jungle Book adaptation to be directed by Jon Favreau.

You might recognize Serkis' voice more than him in person. He provided motion capture and voice work to Peter Jackson as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong as well as lending his body once again to motion capture as Caesar for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He is also reprising the role of Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Despite being a second unit director for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this will be Serkis' directorial debut.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - First Trailer

Holy shit. Those apes look fantastic.

SDCC: First image from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

We got our first image of Caesar from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Such a tongue twister.

Director Matt Reeves warned guests at Comic-Con that the footage of the apes was limited due to the fact that it takes 10-12 weeks to render a single ape, but we do have enough to see Caesar wearing some war paint. I still think the apes look ridiculously real. I am excited for this one.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes starts on July 18, 2014.

#SDCC #PlanetOfTheApes #20thCenturyFox

Gary Oldman to star in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The cast for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continues to grow. In the past week or so we learned that Jason Clarke and Kodi Smit-McPhee had joined the cast and now we have confirmation that Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, just about everything) has also been cast. It's been suggested that Oldman is going to play Dreyfus, the leader of the human resistance against the apes.

This cast is starting to get pretty exciting.

Kodi Smit-McPhee cast in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

After the addition of Jason Clarke last week the cast seems to be gaining some more momentum with the announcement of another lead role. Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, ParaNorman) has been cast in another unspecified lead role. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place 15 years after the events of the first film and focuses on the human survivors struggling to survive in San Francisco. The thing that confuses me a bit about McPhee's casting is he is still a teenager which means he would have been a baby/toddler when the monkey virus outbreak happens at the end of the first one, but they might make his character a little older than he is. Either that or maybe he's playing Clarke's son or something.
This marks the second Matt Reeves film that McPhee will appear in. McPhee had a lead role in Let Me In back in 2010. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the sixth film added to McPhee's busy schedule. His upcoming projects also include A Birder's Guide to Everything, The Congress, Romeo and Juliet, The Wilderness of James, and The Young Ones.


I'm excited for this because I actually like Kodi Smit-McPhee for what it's worth. I loved him in Let Me In and I think as far as voice work went he did a great job in ParaNorman. Then again, I liked ParaNorman in general. I'm curious to see exactly what role he will have.

James Franco may not return for Apes sequel

I am one of the people who assumed James Franco would return for the Planet of the Apes sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. However, with a recent MTV interview Franco revealed he might not return after all.

“I was going to be a small part of the next one. There was a moment when Rupert Wyatt was going to direct the second one. A lot of the human characters that were in the first movie were dead in the sequel that Rupert was going to direct. But there was one scene, between Caesar and my character, maybe even just like on a video that was left behind, but then a lot of things happened, like [former Fox co-chairman] Tom Rothman who was a big part of the first movie, left. Now Rupert’s not a part of it so I don’t know. My guess is I won’t be in it. Nobody’s talked to me since Rupert left.”

Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) is attached to direct and it has been confirmed that Andy Serkis will return for more motion-capture to bring Caesar back to life, but no other names have been mentioned. Aside from Franco the only other person I can see realistically returning, as John Lithgow bit the dust, is Freida Pinto. There is still plenty of time for them to get Franco on board if they want and if he wants, though. The movie isn't set for release until May 2014.