Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a certified hit; commercially the movie has earned over $700 Million in box office takings since its release 4 months ago, while critically the movie has been met with widespread acclaim; attaining a 7.9 out of 10 rating on Rotten Tomtoes, mirrored with a 79 out of 100 rating on Metacritic, both of which are comparable to our rating which at the time of going to press stands at 4.7 out of 5. The success of Dawn, and its predecessor Rise has led to leading character actor and motion capture performance artist Andy Serkis, also known for playing Gollum/Smeagle in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, to be nominated in the category for Best Actor at the next Academy Awards on March 2, 2014.
The sequel, which is known only as The Planet of the Apes is due to hit theatres July 29, 2016 and will see the director Matt Reeves return to helm the final instalment in the highly successful and acclaimed prequel trilogy to the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. In a recent interview with Coming Soon, Reeves talked briefly about the direction the eagerly anticipated finale will take...
"The first one is sort of how [Caesar] goes from humble beginnings to becoming a revolutionary. In 'Dawn,' he really rose to occasion of becoming a leader in really challenging and difficult times. The notion of what we're after with the third is to sort of continue that trajectory and see how he becomes a seminal figure in ape history. He almost becomes sort of like an ape Moses. A mythic status... We're trying to play out those themes and continue to sort of explore it in this universe. Exploring human nature under the guise of apes."
"A thing I always found very moving was the concept of a character that was [an outsider]. Andy [Serkis] told me the way he played him and the thing that really moved me was that [Caesar] was really all about being an outsider. [He] said that [he] felt [he] was human until the one day it was made clear that that [he isn't]. [He] said it felt like heartbreak. Like, 'Oh, I'm not one of them!' Then he's thrown in with the apes, but he's not one of them either. He's an outsider to both. That was very moving to me because he's an outsider to both but connected to both. He is the unique character in this story to be able to connect between the human and the ape world."
