The Apes Rise in a Prequel Story

Planet of the Apes is one of the most enduring film franchises with the 1968 original starring screen legend Charlton Heston spawning 4 sequels and a short lived TV series. The film was based on the 1963 book La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle and was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner with John Chambers winning an Oscar for his apes prosthetic make-up.

Check out a classic scene.

[jwplayer config=”movie_wide” mediaid=”2362″]Courtesy of Fox

Remade more than thirty years later in what was the beginning of Tim Burton’s slew of re- imaginings with Mark Wahlberg in the lead and Tim Roth as the ape nemesis, it set up the possibility of a sequel with the main character returning to an alternate ape reality, though despite strong earnings the film had mixed reviews and failed to spark a new series.

Now almost a decade later the studios are re-launching the world of the apes but not as a dreaded reboot which invariably lacks new story elements, but as a prequel. The new film takes place in a modern-day San Francisco where a scientist played by James Franco is searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s to help his ailing father played by John Lithgow whose suffering from the early stages of the disease. He performs tests on primates to show signs of any progress but when one of them named Caesar starts to show unbelievable improvements, the evolution of the apes begins.

Also starring is Freida Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire as a primatologist and Brian Cox as the cruel owner of the Ape sanctuary who runs things with his son played by Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame.

Freida Pinto, Tom Felton, Brian Cox

The film is directed by British filmmaker Rupert Wyatt from a script written by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa.

James Franco was interviewed by MTV and was asked for his take on the new film.

Shooting of the new movie wrapped in September and as the set pic shows we won’t be seeing apes using traditional make-up FX but fully rendered CG creations by Weta digital, similar to the effects they produced in Avatar and the impressive photo realistic aliens in the pseudo doco,  District 9. The cutting edge technology records the facial expressions via special camera headsets and famed motion capture actor Andy Serkis can be seen in the set pic wearing the capture suit playing the lead ape, Ceasar.

Rise of the Apes is scheduled for release June 24, 2011