It’s not easy to keep giving new life to an old story, and equally there are many that would argue that it isn’t all that creative either, so for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes it’s not going to be easy to stack up to its abundance of primate predecessors when it’s released in 2014. However, with the success of 2011’s The Rise of the Planet of the Apes the stage has already been set for the resurgence of the furry fight back.
The story is a direct sequel to the 2011 film which saw James Franco‘s character creating the viral drug that gave increased intelligence to chimpanzees, spawning a new force to battle for supremacy on Earth. While Franco, and the majority of the other characters from Rise, didn’t make it through for the sequel on the human side, the apes’ leader Caesar will again be played by Andy Serkis (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), along with Terry Notary as Rocket and Karin Konoval as Maurice.
The story picks up eight years after Caesar’s emergence as the ape leader and the release of the virus ALZ-113, which provided super intelligence in primates, but infected and killed large portions of humanity. The surviving humans and the growing band of genetically evolved apes have a tentatively peaceful arrangement, but it isn’t long before tensions start to develop and the fate of humanity returns to hanging in the balance.
Gary Oldman (RoboCop 2014) plays Dreyfus, the leader of the remaining people that co-exist with Caesar and his monkey army, and he’s joined by a cast that includes Jason Clarke (Lawless, The Great Gatsby) and Keri Russell (Dark Skies). A slightly grown up Kodi Smit-McPhee returns to the big screen apocalypse after his excellent role in the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the ape side of the movie is added to by Judy Greer who replaces Devyn Dalton as Cornelia, Caesar’s mate.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is due for a cinematic release date of the 11th July 2014, making it a pretty big contender for the potential summer blockbuster spot. From the look of the trailer (below), the latest in the ongoing string of movie spin offs from Pierre Boulle’s 1963 sci-fi novel, Planet of the Apes, is going to be just as tense and stylistically dark as its 2011 predecessor.
Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) has taken over director credits from Rupert Wyatt, but writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver are back in charge of writing, as well as being producers, to ensure continuity in the storyline and style of the plot. They’ve also got the support of Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Mark Bomback (The Wolverine 2013) in the writing credits.
