First On-Set Photos from 'Rise of Apes' Need CGI

Here are the first couple shots from the set of Rise of the Apes, the reboot attempt of the Planet of the Apes series that used to be called Caesar and is in reality a retouched version of the fourth Apes movie, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Got all that?

Courtesy of io9 Pay no mind to who the actor is; the motion-capture suit should tell you all you need to know here. He's just supplying the movements that director Rupert Wyatt will hand over to the CGI wizards at WETA. Then they'll take this guy's ape walk or whatever and multiply a bazillion times.Actually, since his name tag says "Caesar," and that's the lead ape, they'll probably have dozens of examples to work with so the armies of apes don't look like automatons, but you get the idea.

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June 2011 Release Date Set for 'Rise of the Apes'

The new Planet of the Apes film, which as I suspected has undergone a name change, will be released on June 24, 2011. So says Latino Review, which also indicates that the movie formerly known as Caesar will now be called Rise of the Apes. About a month ago, I wrote, "I would not be the least bit surprised to see the name Planet of the Apes show up before it's all said and done...Hard to reboot a five-movie arc in the middle without the benefit of the brand name."

So now it's Rise of the Apes and Rupert Wyatt (the gritBrit drama The Escapist) is directing, based on a script that began with Scott Frank, who was also going to direct early on, but the screenplay is now credited to co-producers Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa. If you're new to all of this and didn't even know there were other Apes movies after the Charlton Heston classic, Fox put out four more in quick succession, and right in the middle is one called Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and it's probably the strongest of those sequels. Says Latino Review of the reimagined Conquest, "Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy."

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When a 'Planet of the Apes' Remake Is Not a 'Planet of the Apes' Remake

As a guy who relies on Damn Dirty Apes as the very basis of his movie review system, news about Planet of the Apes will always interest me, even if - as in this case - it's not strictly speaking about Planet of the Apes.

Fox has apparently fallen in love with the story from the Apes prequel Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Its president, Tom Rothman, went on Fox Movie Channel during an Apes marathon and said, more or less, that they were trying to find a script for a new movie. That was Saturday. Sunday, the news came that Scott Frank, who wrote and directed The Lookout, would be hired by the studio to handle those duties on the Conquest remake, once called Apes: Genesis and now called Caesar.Monday, CHUD talked to Frank and he confirmed that he was going to write and direct Caesar, but it's not a Planet of the Apes movie. "(H)is film will not feature talking monkeys," writes Devin Faraci of CHUD, "and it will not end with chimpanzees running wild in the streets, taking over the world."

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Return to the Rumor of the 'Planet of the Apes'

Several weeks ago, it was just a rumor like so many rumors we feel compelled to talk about, simply because of their possibilities. But now, the likelihood that we'll get another Planet of the Apes movie seems to be picking up steam, even though when news of the proposed remake first made it out of the studio, it didn't appear to have very much momentum at all.Devin Faraci at CHUD mentioned that Fox was exploring a new Apes flick - based on one of the sequels, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes - and now studio head Tom Rothman seems to be considerably more open to the idea than he was before. In fact, Rothman was apparently talking about a future Apes project on the Fox Movie Channel, saying after a broadcast of the original film during a weekend marathon, "We are very close at Fox on a new Apes script- this one a kind of prequel story before the first story, with a return to the social thematics that mark the first one, but with an entirely contemporary setting - Earth 2009." The one thing I'll say about the other films in the series is that they have pretty novel plots, places for the characters and the action to go. They're not all great movies (and in fact, I don't even think Conquest is all that good), but the stories have potential. But would Fox treat this like a prequel to the Mark Wahlberg Apes remake? Uh...let's hope not.

Fox Putting Its Stinking Paws Back On Those Damn Dirty Apes?

There's a great and estimably more thorough article on this at CHUD, but we'll boil it down for you and if you're interested in reading more about it, head on over.

Here's the deal: We may get another Planet of the Apes movie.It won't be another remake of the original. Most people hated, hated, hated the Tim Burton version, at least in comparison with the 1968 classic. As remakes go, it simply didn't preserve any of the magic that made the first one a classic. It was bloated, way too serious, and in every artistic way, a disappointment.But before you dismiss what Fox is working on now, you need to check out 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Of the four follow-ups, all of which were released within five years of the first film, I think Conquest has the best storyline. It goes back to how the apes came to power in the first place, beginning with Caesar, an ape that could talk and reason like a man. There are some great riot scenes, and though the film is never as good as it wants to be, it's the only other necessary one in the series.

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