A clip from "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" shows how the primates have been updated.
Somebody's grumpy... 20th Century Fox/Weta Digital Of all the reboots, prequels and origin stories going on in Hollywood franchises right now, there hasn't been as much talk about this August's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," which takes place in modern-day San Francisco and sets into motion the simian revolution that knocks humanity off its perch as masters of Earth. When the original "Planet of the Apes" with Charlton Heston came out in 1968, one of the things that made it a classic (beyond its awesomely campy dialogue) was its cutting-edge ape makeup. Forty-three years later, the prequel has just unveiled a short clip of what the apes will look like this time. It's pretty lifelike -- and kinda creepy.
The apes will be all CGI for the new film, which is directed by relative unknown Rupert Wyatt (he previously did the British prison-break movie "The Escapist"). The effects work was done by director Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, which handled his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "King Kong," so they've got some experience making monkeys seem human. But they've topped themselves with this footage, although we do have to remind everyone that it's all of five seconds long.
An original Planet of the Apes ape, circa 1968. 20th Century Fox What can you see in five seconds? Well, it's a simple shot of an ape who slowly moves his eyes to the right in a pretty natural, human way, underscored by some low, ominous music in the background. The impression this clip is supposed to make is pretty obvious: (1) Man, that monkey looks real; and (2) Uh oh, something bad is about ready to go down.
Andy Serkis (who did the motion-capture work for Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" films) will be playing Caesar, the main ape in this prequel, which also stars James Franco and Freida Pinto. The assumption is that this footage is of Caesar, but honestly we're just guessing. Regardless, it appears we won't have to worry about the apes in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." We should point out, though, that when Fox tried to do a "Planet of the Apes" remake 10 years ago with Mark Wahlberg, the ape costumes looked pretty impressive, too -- it was just everything else about that movie that was absolutely shoddy.
VIDEO: First Look at Ape From 'Rise of The Planet of the Apes' [Heat Vision/The Hollywood Reporter]
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