Rise of the Planet of the Apes Information

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 American science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, and Andy Serkis. Written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, it is 20th Century Fox's reboot of the Planet of the Apes series, intended to act as an origin story for a new series of films. Its premise is similar to the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), but it is not a direct remake in that it does not fit into that series' continuity.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on August 5, 2011, to critical and commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for five Saturn Awards including Best Director for Wyatt and Best Writing for Jaffa and Silver, winning Best Science Fiction Film, Best Supporting Actor for Serkis and Best Special Effects. Serkis's performance as Caesar was widely acclaimed, earning him many nominations from many associations which do not usually recognize performance capture as real acting. A sequel to the film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is set for release in May 2014.

Plot

Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist at biotechnology company Gen-Sys who has been trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease and is testing a new gene therapy drug on chimpanzees. The drug, a modified virus, mutates a chimpanzee, giving her a human level of intelligence. She later goes on a rampage which is seen as a side effect of the drug. When Will's boss Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) subsequently orders chimp handler Robert Franklin (Tyler Labine) to euthanize the remaining test chimpanzees Franklin discovers the chimp had given birth and was only protecting her baby. Unable to bring himself to kill the baby chimp, Robert gives him to Will, who takes him home to raise.

Will's father Charles (John Lithgow), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, names the baby chimp "Caesar" (a reference to Julius Caesar). Caesar (Andy Serkis) has inherited his mother's high intelligence and develops quickly. One day, after he frightens the children of their neighbor, Douglas Hunsiker (David Hewlett) and receives a cut on his leg, Will takes him to the San Francisco Zoo where primatologist Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto) treats his injury. Will begins to take Caesar on excursions to the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, but after seeing a family's German shepherd, Caesar asks if he is a pet. When Caesar questions his identity, Will tells him that his mother was given a drug and that the reason for his intelligence is that the drug affected him while still in the womb. Caesar becomes more aware of his biological identity and begins to view himself as different from his human family.

A desperate Will tests a sample of his cure on his father. At first, his father's condition improves, but eventually his dementia returns. Confused, he attempts to drive Hunsiker's car, and damages it, angering Hunsiker. Caesar witnesses the confrontation and attacks Hunsiker, prompting authorities to place him in a primate shelter run by John Landon (Brian Cox), where he is treated cruelly by the other apes and the chief guard, Landon's son Dodge (Tom Felton). Caesar escapes from his cell and frees a gorilla called Buck kept in solitary confinement. With Buck's assistance, Caesar gains dominance over the other apes by intimidating the sanctuary's alpha chimp.

Will creates a more powerful form of the virus to resume treating his father, and boss Jacobs clears its testing on chimpanzees, which further increases their intelligence. However, unknown to the scientists, it is fatal to humans. Franklin is exposed to the new virus and begins sneezing blood. Attempting to contact Will at his home, he accidentally infects Hunsiker, and he is then later discovered dead in his apartment. Will attempts to warn Jacobs against further testing but when Jacobs refuses to listen, Will quits his job.

After his father's death, Will bribes the elder Landon into releasing Caesar into his custody, but Caesar refuses to leave. He later escapes from the ape facility on his own and returns to Will's house, where he steals canisters of the new virus and releases it throughout the cage area at the facility, enhancing the intelligence of his fellow apes. The apes put an escape plan into motion. Landon's son Dodge attempts to intervene, leading to a fight with Caesar. Caesar shocks Dodge by shouting "No!" at him, and later kills him through electrocution. The liberated apes storm the city and release the remaining apes from Gen-Sys, as well as the entire ape population of a zoo.

A terrible battle follows as the apes force their way past a police blockade on the Golden Gate Bridge to escape into the Redwood forest. Buck sacrifices his life to save Caesar, jumping into a police helicopter (with Will's boss Jacobs aboard) as they try to shoot Caesar. Buck damages the helicopter severely forcing it to crash on the bridge. A still alive Jacobs trapped in the helicopter is finally killed when Koba, an ape who had spent a lifetime being tested on, kicks the helicopter off the bridge. As the apes find their way into the Redwood forest, Will arrives and warns Caesar that the humans will hunt them down, and begs him to return home. To Will's surprise Caesar speaks like a human, telling him that "Caesar is home" among his fellow apes. The final image shows the apes climbing to the tops of the Redwood trees, looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay.

In a post-credits scene, Hunsiker arrives at his job as an airline pilot. He sneezes out blood as he is infected by the virus he got from Franklin. The camera pans to a filled flight-status display board, zooming in on New York implying the spread of a global pandemic.

Cast

Humans

• James Franco as Dr. William "Will" Rodman, a scientist who is trying to discover a cure for his father's Alzheimer's disease by testing ALZ-112 on chimps. He is a father figure to Caesar. James Franco was cast after talks with Tobey Maguire broke down.
• Freida Pinto as Caroline Aranha, a primatologist who starts a relationship with Will and grows attached to Caesar.
• John Lithgow as Charles Rodman, Will's Alzheimer's-afflicted father and a former music teacher who improves after Will gives him the ALZ-112 and forms a strong bond with Caesar.
• Brian Cox as John Landon, manager of the San Bruno Primate Shelter where Caesar is confined for a time. His full name is a reference to one of the astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes.
• Tom Felton as Dodge Landon, John's son and an animal caretaker at the shelter, who enjoys treating the apes cruelly. His first and last name are references to two of the astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes.
• David Oyelowo as Steven Jacobs, Will's greedy boss. His last name is a reference to Arthur P. Jacobs, the producer of the original Planet of the Apes series.
• Tyler Labine as Robert Franklin, a chimp handler at Gen-Sys.
• Jamie Harris as Rodney, a caretaker and a nightwatchman who is kinder to the apes at the sanctuary.
• David Hewlett as Douglas Hunsiker, Will's hot headed neighbor.
• Chelah Horsdal as Irena, a nurse who is looking after Charles.

Apes

• Andy Serkis as Caesar, a chimpanzee whose intelligence is increased due to inheriting ALZ-112 from his mother during her pregnancy, and who is raised by Will for eight years. He later leads an ape revolution against humanity. The character is based on Caesar from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes of the original series.
• Karin Konoval as Maurice, a Bornean orangutan who had retired from the circus and knows sign language; he becomes Caesar's closest ally. His name is a reference to Maurice Evans, who played orangutan Dr. Zaius in the original Planet of the Apes (1968). Konoval also cameos as the court clerk who Will briefly argues with about his appeal.
• Terry Notary as Rocket, the former dominant chimp at the ape sanctuary, until Caesar overthrows him " his name references the set decorator of Planet of the Apes, Norman Rockett " and Bright Eyes, Caesar's mother who was captured in Africa " her name is the nickname given to Charlton Heston's human character by Zira in the 1968 film.
• Richard Ridings as Buck, a western lowland gorilla who pledges his allegiance to Caesar after he is freed by him. His name is a reference to Buck Kaltilian, who played the gorilla Julius in the 1968 film, as well as another gorilla Frank in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
• Christopher Gordon as Koba, a scar-faced bonobo who has spent most of his life in laboratories and holds a grudge against humans. He is named Koba after an alias often used by Joseph Stalin
• Devyn Dalton as Cornelia, a female chimpanzee in the ape sanctuary. Her name is the female name of the chimp Cornelius played by Roddy McDowall in the original Planet Of The Apes.
• Jay Caputo as Alpha, the dominant male chimpanzee of Bright Eyes' troop and Caesar's father.

Production

Development and writing

In 2006, screenwriter-producer Rick Jaffa was searching for a script idea. As Jaffa searched a newspaper articles clipping, one about pet chimpanzees that become troublesome to their owners and heartbroken for not adapting well to the human environment intrigued him. As Jaffa eventually realized it fit the Planet of the Apes series, he called his wife and screenwriting partner Amanda Silver to express his ideas of such a chimpanzee eventually starting the ape revolution, and then the couple started developing the character of Caesar. Jaffa and Silver then wrote a script and sold it to Fox, producers of the Apes franchise. The script added other elements which the couple had researched, such as genetic engineering. Several tributes to specific scenes, characters, and cast and crew from the previous Apes film series were added in the script " in particular, Caesar's treatment at the primate sanctuary parallels Taylor's treatment as a captive in the original film.

In a segment of a video blog post, director Rupert Wyatt commented on the originality of the plot: "This is part of the mythology and it should be seen as that. It's not a continuation of the other films; it's an original story. It does satisfy the people who enjoy those films. The point of this film is to achieve that and to bring that fan base into this film exactly like Batman Begins." In a 2009 interview, Wyatt said, "We've incorporated elements from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, in terms of how the apes begin to revolt, but this is primarily a prequel to the 1968 film.... Caesar is a revolutionary figure who will be talked about by his fellow apes for centuries.... This is just the first step in the evolution of the apes, and there's a lot more stories to tell after this. I imagine the next film will be about the all-out war between the apes and humans."

Filming

Filming began in July 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming also happened in San Francisco, California " the primary setting of the film " and around Oahu, Hawaii, which doubled for the African jungle as the schedule and budget did not allow for location shooting in Africa.

Visual effects

As the animals in Rise were meant to be actual apes instead of the anthropomorphic simians of the original Apes film franchise, the producers decided not to use actors in make-up or animal suits. After considering real apes, instead Weta Digital created the apes digitally in almost every case through performance capture. Advances in the technology allowed the use of performance capture in an exterior environment, affording the film-makers the freedom to shoot much of the film on location with other actors, as opposed to the confines of a soundstage. The main breakthrough was a camera that enabled to watch the motion capture dots under daylight, employed mostly for the Golden Gate Bridge battle. A maximum of six actors could have their movements captured, with larger ape crowds using fully digital animals animated using Weta's move library. The Golden Gate Bridge set used both a physical set which was extended digitally, and a fully computer-generated model of the bridge that also included the ocean and nearby hills.

After shooting the actors playing humans interacting with others wearing the motion capture suits, a clean plate was shot with actors against the nothing for extra reference. Actor-stuntman Terry Notary guided the actors on realistic ape movement, while Weta studied the chimps in the Wellington zoo for reference. The digital apes also received detailed models with skeletons, muscles and nervous tissue layers for accurate animation. Cast models of apes' heads and limbs helped the texture department to replicate the skin details such as wrinkles and pores. Given the difference between human and chimpanzee facial muscles, the animators tweaked the performance through a new facial muscle system adding all the dynamics, ballistics, and secondary motion. As the silent performance required expressive eyes, a new eye model was made to depict both greater accuracy in muscle movement in and around the eyes, but also tear moisture, pupil dilation, and light refraction. While Andy Serkis was the primary performer for Caesar, as the effects team considered that at times "Andy overcame the character," other motion capture team actors were also used, especially Devyn Dalton, who had the same height as the chimpanzee would have. Along with that, they used Notary to play Caesar in stunt-filled scenes such as the Golden Gate Bridge scene.

Music

The score for the film was written by Patrick Doyle and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. The main concern was to have the music help progress the plot in the scenes without dialogue, for instance, conveying the emotions of Caesar's relationships with Will and Charles. To turn the score into a "driving force that keeps audiences paying attention," Doyle employed an African-American chorus and focused on percussion and "low and deep" orchestra sounds. Doyle collaborated closely with the sound department to make the music complement the sound effects, including writing a recurring theme based on their recording of a chimpanzee.

Reception

Critical response

Reviews for Rise of the Planet of the Apes have been positive, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting an 83% "Certified Fresh" rating, and an average rating of 7.1/10, based on 239 reviews. The site's critical consensus is: "Led by Rupert Wyatt's stylish direction, some impressive special effects, and a mesmerizing performance by Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes breathes unlikely new life into a long-running franchise." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, reports a score of 68 based on 39 reviews.

Giving the film 5 out of 5 stars, Joe Neumaier of Daily News labelled Rise of the Planet of the Apes as the summer's best popcorn flick.

Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice wrote, "Caesar's prison conversion to charismatic pan-ape revolutionist is near-silent filmmaking, with simple and precise images illustrating Caesar's General-like divining of personalities and his organization of a group from chaos to order."

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised the role of Caesar and Andy Serkis by stating it was a "wonderfully executed character" and "one never knows exactly where the human ends and the effects begin, but Serkis and/or Caesar gives the best performance in the movie."

Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel wrote, "Audacious, violent and disquieting, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a summer sequel that's better than it has any right to be." He gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film by saying, "Precisely the kind of summer diversion that the studios have such a hard time making now. It's good, canny-dumb fun." She also gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Richard Corliss of Time named it the eighth best film of 2011, saying, "Rise restores wonder to the word "movie"."

Box office

Rise of the Planet of the Apes made its debut in the United States and Canada on roughly 5,400 screens within 3,648 theaters. It grossed $19,534,699 on opening day and $54,806,191 in its entire opening weekend, making it #1 for that weekend as well as the fourth highest-grossing August opening ever. The film held on to the #1 spot in its second weekend, dropping 49.2%, and grossing $27,832,307. Rise of the Planet of the Apes crossed the $150 million mark in the United States and Canada on its 26th day of release. Entertainment Weekly said that this was quite an accomplishment for the film since the month of August is a difficult time for films to make money.

The film ended its run at the box office on December 15, 2011, with a gross of $176,760,185 in the U.S. and Canada as well as $305,040,688 internationally, for a total of $481,800,873 worldwide.

Awards

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
84th Academy Awards	Best Visual Effects	Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis
Annie Awards	Character Animation in a Live Action Production	Eric Reynolds
Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis
	Best Visual Effects
	Best Action Film
Empire Awards	Best Film
	Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy
	Best Director	Rupert Wyatt
	Best Actor	Andy Serkis
Genesis Awards	Best Feature Film	Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
Houston Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis
	Technical Achievement
IGN Best of 2011	Best Movie
	Best Sci-Fi Movie
	Best Movie Actor	Andy Serkis (also for The Adventures of Tintin)
	Best Movie Director	Rupert Wyatt
IGN Summer Movie Awards
	Best Summer Movie
	Funniest Line	"Why cookie Rocket?"
	Best All-Out Brawl	Apes vs. Humans on the Golden Gate Bridge
	Favorite Kill	Helicopter Pushed Over the Golden Gate Bridge
	Coolest Creature	Caesar
	Favorite Hero	Caesar "? Andy Serkis
Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Visual Effects
London Film Critics Circle	Technical Achievement	Joe Letteri
Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Visual Effects
San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis
Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture	Andy Serkis
	Best Visual Effects	Jeff Capogreco, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White
Saturn Awards	Best Science Fiction Film
	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis
	Best Director	Rupert Wyatt
	Best Writing	Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
	Best Special Effects	Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett
Visual Effects Society	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture	Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, Cyndi Ochs, Kurt Williams
	Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture	Caesar "? Daniel Barrett, Florian Fernandez, Matthew Muntean, Eric Reynolds
	Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture	Thelvin Cabezas, Mike Perry, R. Christopher White, Erik Winquist
	Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture	Jean-Luc Azzis, Quentin Hema, Simon Jung, Christoph Salzmann
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor	Andy Serkis

Sequels

Regarding the story setting up possible sequels, director Rupert Wyatt commented: "I think we're ending with certain questions, which is quite exciting. To me, I can think of all sorts of sequels to this film, but this is just the beginning." Screenwriter and producer Rick Jaffa also stated that Rise of the Planet of the Apes would feature several clues as to future sequels: "I hope that we're building a platform for future films. We're trying to plant a lot of the seeds for a lot of the things you are talking about in terms of the different apes and so forth."

In an interview recorded after the release of the film, Wyatt stated that "We want to grow and evolve, in the films that will [hopefully] come after this, to the '68 original." Wyatt also stated that he wants it to take place eight years after the original, as a whole new ape generation can be born, and explore the dynamics of Caesar and Koba's relationship.

According to Jaffa, a version of the spaceship from the 1968 Planet of the Apes is featured under the name Icarus in the film as a deliberate hint to a possible sequel. Andy Serkis has confirmed that there will be a sequel for the film and that he will be reprising his role as Caesar.

On May 15, 2012, it was announced Scott Z. Burns had been hired to do rewrites on Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver's screenplay. On May 31, 20th Century Fox announced that the sequel, titled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, was scheduled for release on May 23, 2014.

On September 17, 2012, there were reports that director Rupert Wyatt was considering leaving the sequel due to his concern that a May 2014 release date would not give him enough time to make the film properly. On October 1, Matt Reeves was confirmed to direct. On October 18, Mark Bomback was reported to be doing a re-write for Reeves. On December 17, James Franco speculated he will not be returning for the sequel, saying "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."

In February 2013, actors Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and Kodi Smit-McPhee are cast in lead roles and the film set 15 years after the events from the first film. In March 2013, actress Keri Russell was cast in a role.

Filming of "Dawn" is scheduled to start on North Vancouver Island around the beginning of April 2013. The location of Vancouver Island was chosen for its similarity to the locations depicted in the film, the forests, and the variety of landscapes.

Home media

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and Digital Copy on December 13, 2011.