Two days ago we saw a very quick snippet from Rupert Wyatt’s RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, which showed Andy Serkis in a highly realistic ape rendering. Today, after F/X specialists WETA ran a live broadcast, we now have even more concept art for the film, as well as a few details that differentiate the new outing from its predecessors. A lot to get to, so let’s run it…
First up is the concept art from WETA (via Badass Digest), which features various simians performing a coup on the city of San Francisco. A hotel, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, even downtown is overrun by unruly apes!
Next up, courtesy of Empire Online, is a stage-by-stage look at how Andy Serkis’ Caesar character was achieved. He starts with the motion capture nodules, then through a series of computerized layers, Caesar is born. Here’s what WETA’s senior visual effects supervisor Joe Leterri had to say:
“The main thing we’re trying to do is create these completely believable ape characters and treat them completely in a live-action sense. This actually grew most directly out of what we were doing on Avatar, but here we brought the motion capture completely onto the live-action stage. We had to hide all of the motion-capture cameras all over the live-action sets. And so we could have Andy Serkis, and any of the other actors playing the apes in the set with the [non-ape] actors actually performing.”
Cool shite, right?
Well that’s not all. The L.A. Times also spoke with WETA, and they learned a tidbit that sets Wyatt’s film apart from the APES films that came before it. In particular, the apes in the new film won’t talk. At all.
“Caesar has got to carry the scenes with no dialogue,” said Joe Letteri. “We had to figure out how to portray a lot of the emotion just through the eyes, which is something we learned on Kong and with [‘Lord of the Rings’ villain] Gollum.”
Driving the point further:
“Our chimps have to look like real chimps,” Letteri said. “In the original franchise, you could tell they were actors in suits. Here we’re seeing how the evolution happened. We have to go to reality.”
And speaking to the motion-capture sequences with Serkis, Letteri continued with “It was great for getting the emotional beats, the eye contact with other performers. It’s the origins story, so that gave us a lot of freedom.”
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is due August 5th.
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES star Freida Pinto!
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