Matt Reeves, the director of found footage monster mash Cloverfield and horror remake Let Me In is confirmed to helm the Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes sequel. The follow up, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is scheduled for a 2014 release.
After the news broke that original director Rupert Wyatt would not be returning for more ape action in the sequel, Fox drew up a short list of potential directors.
Matt Reeves was always reportedly the favourite and obviously seems
unfazed by the tight production schedule as he prepares to shoot for a
summer 2014 release. Many will be disappointed after the promising
inclusion of such directors as Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Rian Johnson (Looper) on the original wish list...
Big news today! Bond 23 gets a title... wait for it... Skyfall! Wow! As usual this means nothing to me. It's just another random naming of a Bond adventure that will inevitably lead to another completely average theme song and a much more interesting trippy opening credit sequence featuring sillhouetted women posing suggestively with guns... or something. Slightly more promising than the underwhelming title is the news that Javier Bardem will be following his creepy turn in No Country for Old Men with a stab at a Bond villain. Oh and apparently Bond may have a beard in this one. Being directed by Sam Mendes could be reason to get very excited or it could be a reason to go; Bond? The director of American Beauty? WTF???
Forget Bond. The real big bit of news for today is the signing of Andy Serkis to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Recently I suggested here that this might be the first prequel ever to not suck. After getting all excited by the trailer, I was not disappointed by the film and actually really hoped that there would be more to come in this franchise. The prequel spent so much time setting up a great character in Caesar (played perfectly using performance capture technology by Andy Serkis), that it only just got to the rising of the apes in the last few minutes of the film. The scope for the sequel is epic. I can't wait to see how these apes are going to bring an end to the rule of us pesky humans on this planet. It should be two hours of (guerilla/gorilla) warfare!
The signing of Serkis means the return of the prequel's anti-hero Caesar. This is a character easy to empathise with and root for, the CGI playing second fiddle to Serkis' motion-captured performance. Go read this excellent post on why Serkis should get an Oscar nomination for his work! It remains to be seen if James Franco will return, though despite being the hero and a great actor to watch, it was Caeser's story that needed to be continued as he leads the revolution.
Anyway, despite the ever increasing reliance on franchises, sequels, prequels and the ever-diminishing originality in Hollywood, this is a sequel to a prequel that will hopefully be a pleasure to see rise at the box office.
Finally a truly decent prequel! Rise of the Planet of the Apes has risen to the challenge and begun the long process of eradicating the memories of all those nasty, disappointing, pointless cash-in prequels that have littered multiplexes, particularly since the Star Wars prequels crushed the childhood dreams of so many.
With a number of cool nods to the original and an origin story that feels like it needed telling, ROTPOTA does not disappoint in starting the story of how Planet Earth became the Planet of the Apes. In fact, the story is set up so carefully and with such a brilliant and engaging character in Caesar, the revolution only begins in the last half hour of the prequel.
Hopefully this means there can be a sequel to this prequel that deals with the war between apes and humans and furthers the story of how humans were crushed. However it could be that the writers of ROTPOTA decided to end the film where they did because they realized that it would get further and further into ridiculousness as they tried to keep showing apes battling and beating humans armed with machine guns, helicopters and tanks.
Anyway, no matter whether the story is too far-fetched for you, the character of Caesar has to go down as one of the most sympathetic antiheroes of all time. Never have I wanted the ‘villain’ to win so much in a film before! Never have I wanted to see us humans crushed by an enemy this badly!
Thanks again to another stunning bit of captured performance from Andy Serkis and the effects people at WETA (following Gollum and King Kong), Caesar is brilliant; filled with recognizable emotions, intelligence and finally, understandably raging against the machine.
Prequels have a bad name for a good reason. Try and come up with a list of 10 good prequels! It’s not easy and many would say impossible. Godfather Part 2 had elements of a prequel but is also a sequel. Temple of Doom is a prequel but is a completely different story to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Revenge of the Sith had it’s moments; the burning of Anakin, the rise of Vader and The Phantom Menace had the pod-race but really I’m clutching at straws.
On the other hand you have Hannibal Rising, Leatherface: The Beginning and Attack of the Clones. I shiver at the mention of their names.
So maybe with ROTPOTA and X-Men: First Class, a change is coming. Perhaps this is the dawn of the quality prequel. Or am I being unfair? What have I missed? Are there other great prequels out there? Do the reboots of Star Trek and Batman count as prequels? You tell me…
Finally a prequel that has an interesting and exciting story to tell! Yes the fall of Anakin had its moments and X-Men: First Class sounds vaguely entertaining but this looks like its going to fill in the details on how one of the greatest twists in cinema history came to occur!
43 years after the original dropped its bombshell of an ending on unsuspecting audiences, comes the story of how the apes took over the planet. And what a story! The first trailer showed promise, but this most recent one shows the potential for real heart and a finale on an epic scale. Caesar the ape leader looks like an anti-hero worth cheering for despite something not being quite right about WETA’s effects used to depict the apes.
Like Deep Blue Sea before it, the premise of experimenting on animals to find a cure for Alzheimer’s is not particularly new. However if it results in increased intelligence in sharks and now apes and a ride as fun as Deep Blue Sea, I’ll be in line to see this on August 12th. Even if it is just to try and wash away the dirty taste Tim Burton’s 2001 ‘reimagining’.
And how come there’s never been a sequel to Deep Blue Sea?
As the Hollywood summer silly season grows longer and longer every year, perhaps I've left it a little late to share the big dumb blockbusters I'm most anticipating this summer. After all, I've already seen one excellent jumpy screechy horror (Insidious), one head-smackingly dumb but fun action movie (Fast Five) and one comedy sequel that seems just as overrated as the first (The Hangover Part 2).
However with more superheroes, pirates and giant robots on the way, I thought I'd share the biggest of the big that I'm most looking forward to. So I'll begin by saying I'm not really a comic book/superhero fan. Forget X-Men, Green Lantern, Captain America, Thor and any super grouping that Marvel are carefully constructing for the future. I'm not interested. And Captain Jack's just never been that funny to me so despite the loss of Keira and Orlando, I'm not too excited by that behemoth either.
Here's my top five to look out for this summer.
1. Cowboys and Aliens
That had me from the second I heard the title. I know it's based on a graphic novel, but that makes immediately makes it more interesting than the superhero's of this summer. It's got a great cast including Harrison Ford going grumpy, Daniel Craig doing heroic and Paul Dano doing dunno what. Oh and the always excellent Sam Rockwell. It's directed by Jon Favreau who's done a great job with the Iron Man's and it's got freaking cowboys VS freaking aliens. Trailer looks great; violent, ridiculous and taking itself very seriously. Check it out
Released 19th August.
2. Super 8
Written and directed by J.J. Abrams and featuring a virtually unknown cast, the teaser trailer got me interested straight away with a mysterious cargo using its considerable strength to break free from a crashed train. The vibe of this is very Speilbergy with kids in the main roles, bike riding, young love, aliens, awe, 70s setting and mystery and suspense aplenty. I can't forgive Abrams for allowing Lost to end the way it did (though I'm not sure how involved he was by the end) but I'll always be sucked in by the clever marketing campaigns that revolve around work he is attached to as producer or director.
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Love the original, hate the Tim Burton remake. This has James Franco and sounds like a prequel that actually may just have an interesting story to tell. How did earth get overrun by apes leading to Charlton Heston's chilling discovery? Implausible: certainly! Big, dumb, fun; hopefully! Looks like the writers took a leaf out of Deep Blue Sea's book and have gone down the 'don't experiment on dangerous animal's brains' route, otherwise they will grow smart, strategic and us humans will be shafted!
Released 12th August.
4. Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon
This is one I really should not be excited about. The second Transformers was instantly forgettable. Megan Fox is gone. Michael Bay really does make some crap sometimes. But watch the trailer and try not to let your jaw drop. The action and the special effects look mind-melting (though it may all turn out to be an overly edited nonsensical mess). Shia's still in (though getting less and less goofy and there's no sign of his parents!) and Michael Bay still knows how to blow your mind. Toppling buildings, more giant robots than ever and this time the earth looks seriously under threat of destruction. I just hope this time they kill Optimus properly and I can shed a tear for a real childhood hero. Released 1st July
5. Bad Teacher
Well I thought I better include a comedy and this Cameron Diaz pic looks pretty damn good. So all the best bits are probably in the trailer, but isn't that always the way with comedies? This looks rude, sexy and funny. Segel's charming, Timberlake's geeky and Diaz looks just plain filthy! And personally I can definitely relate to Diaz's bad teacher in many ways. Go watch the trailer, forget The Hangover Part 2 and save your comedy cash for this:
Released 17th June
So that's it for me. Anyone still reading? Have I missed anything? Am I deluded?
And if you haven't seen Attack the Block yet, please do go support this British film. I really want to see what Joe Cornish comes up with next. And if you're in the mood for a rental, go get Rubber; this film will melt your brain and make you piss your pants.
