Trailer To War For The Planet Of The ApesPosted by Wilson Morales
December 9, 2016
During their New Year Presentation, 20th Century Fox released the trailer to War for the Planet of the Apes.
Directed by Matt Reeves, the sequel stars Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Terry Notary and Karin Konoval.
In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
On hand to discuss the film were director Matt Reeves and Steve Zahn, who plays ‘Bad Ape.”
Back in October at the 2016 New York Comic Con, 20th Century Fox held a special exclusive Behind-the-Scenes look and film footage presentation for War for the Planet of the Apes.
During the 45 minutes presentation, there was a Q & A discussion moderated by EW’s Kevin Sullivan with director Matt Reeves, producer Dylan Clark and ‘Cesar’ himself, actor Andy Serkis. A featurette was shown that showcased Serkis in his motion caption suit along with the actors who are also playing apes in the film. It was amazing to see split screen takes of Andy/ Cesar as he goes through the motion of showing Cesar’s growth. The second footage showing a scene involving Cesar and Maurice, played Karin Konoval, entering a house gathering whatever they can use for survival. Maurice befriends a young girl who doesn’t speak and when he sees that her father appears dead outside the house, he takes the girl along the ride, with Cesar showing reluctance. The third footage was the actual teaser trailer that showed Woody Harrelson narrating the teaser as his Colonel character seems to be ready with his troops to fight the apes to the bitter until one of them is left standing and in control.
Here are some excerpts from that panel discussion.
Can you talk about how the next story came to be?
Matt Reeves: We started talking about it while we were finishing the film (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and the amount of time we took off between the two films was about four weeks, and we were already talking about the next thing. The thing that we always knew from the beginning was that Dawn was about a moment in time when peace was possible. But of course we know that it does not become “Planet of the Humans,” it becomes Planet of the Apes, so how do we get there?”
So we are left at the end of that story on the precipice of war, but we knew we would take Cesar into this place where he would have to confront a war he didn’t want. So those conversations started right from the beginning. One of the things that Cesar is haunted about is that Dawn was very much how Cesar ending up having to kill his brother in Koba, who was played amazingly by Toby Kebbell. As we begin this story we are thrust two years after the end of Dawn, in the war. Cesar is fighting a war he didn’t want. He’s in the woods. They have all retreated because the apes know better that the humans. Its been a brutal fight and there have been huge loses on both sides and Cesar is haunted by Koba and by what he had to do and somehow he could have seen what it was and the fact that his experience with humans was so dark that he couldn’t co-exist with them. If they had been able to anticipate that, that this war could have been avoided. The mythic journey is that Cesar comes to understand why Koba felt exactly the way he did about the humans. He gets pushed to the extremes of war to a place that’s actually similar in terms on how feels to Koba, and the question is “Will he able to transcend the darkness inside of him the way that Koba was not. The movie is this dark mythic journey into that.
Producer Dylan Clark: The war is also inside of Cesar. The journey that this character has to go on is really inside of him. The haunting of Koba remains. He is alive in the sense that he’s present in Cesar’s mind and what he could have done in the last movie to stop that. He faults himself for not being able to see that. I love this movie. It is our biggest movie. It is a war but it’s also taking Cesar on a journey that is possibly the biggest challenge to an actor.
Andy Serkis: When I first read the script for Rise (of the Planet of the Apes), here we have this story of a young being who is rejected and brought up by human beings and then gets kicked around by what should be his own kind before he becomes a revolutionary and free these apes from bondage. It was this massive arc and with each film, the story has gone on. It seems to take Cesar to these incredible twists and turns and into more darker areas and it’s very reflective of the human condition. Cesar, by definition, is an emphatic character but really where we take him in this movie is the moment where that bleeds away. Where he loses that. It’s the most psychologically intense and emotionally draining part of his arc that I have played. It was a really extraordinary time. It was a beautiful shoot. Very testing. For everybody, it was a very testing, ambitious project brilliantly held by Matt in very harsh conditions. We were shooting. That’s basically it.
In discussing the motion caption and if they needed to step up the technology from what was done for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes:
Matt Reeves: Here’s the thing that I think needs to made clear. People talk about Andy about being the best Mo-cap actor in the world, and the truth of the matter is what does that mean? Does that mean that Andy is an expert on special effects. Andy knows a lot about the technology, but what the technology is, is a device, a series of cameras that record information based on dots on his face that show his facial expression, that show his emotion. It’s not that Andy is a Mo-cap actor. Andy’s an incredible actor. Definitely one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with. When we were doing ‘Dawn,’ I had no idea what it would be like and I’m like, “Why do I this feeling about Cesar?” I’m so moved. I’ve been a lifelong Planet of the Apes fan. I always wanted to be an ape and I saw ‘Rise’ was like, “Wow!” I was Cesar. That was amazing. How did that happen? WETA is amazing and I knew Andy’s work, but I didn’t really understand it. I asked our VFX producer Ryan Stafford to show me every single shot of Cesar and every single of Andy. I watched the version of the movie of Andy and suddenly it clicked. I get it. Cesar is amazing because he’s amazing. I was so affected by his performance in ‘Dawn,’ I wanted to see if we could push it farther. Not only does he have that rage in his eyes because he’s so wounded, that mixture is even so moving that just Cesar. The performance is still affecting you. That’s one of the key things that’s been advanced. To be able to get the equipment at WETA, who at the best in the world, to better capture the detail on Andy’s face and the actors’ faces who are playing the apes. That’s the advancement you see in terms of the performance. We didn’t have to chance what we were doing. The way we begin is the way anyone making a movie begins, which is you get on the floor and you talk to the actors and “Andy, where do you think you will be standing?” That’s how every scene begins.
On Woody Harrelson’s character, Colonel and the human element:
Matt Reeves: One of the things in ‘Rise’ when I was brought in, the thing that I really felt was and that was so moving was that you go in thinking it’s going to be one thing and you discover it’s an ape point of movie, and the most human element comes from an ape; hence the character played by Andy Serkis as Cesar. On the next movie, I felt that we continue that ape point of view, and this story continues that even further. There was split in the last film in terms of following this story versus that story. You had a human section and an ape section, and the Cesar and Koba struggle, and the human struggle. This story is exclusively told through Cesar’s point of view but there important stories that we discover through him.
There is a huge mystery about the brutality of the Colonel, because he does extreme things. The journey is actually one of coming to understand him. As Cesar and Colonel get closer and closer, they get embroiled in an epic battle. They have a huge struggle towards the end of the movie. They come to an understanding about each other, and the thing about his (Colonel) character is, he’s extreme, but the world is extreme. What we try to do in the films is not have villains, but have antagonists who you come to understand. Kobe was the biggest villain in the last film, but we didn’t see that way. We saw him as a tragic figure. What Woody brings to his character is incredible. He really bares his soul. He does these extreme things that Cesar’s trying to understand how anyone can be doing these things; and you come to understand how he’s arrived at that place. In the same way that Koba was held captive and used as an experiment. he hates humans. That’s true for Woody’s character, who’s is a mythic war figure that is leading this group in their last stand for humanity and he’s willing to do whatever it takes.
How brutal would you need to be in in order to make sure that maybe at some point the world can less brutal again. That children can grow up in an environment where it’s less brutal. In that situation, these are the choices he makes.
Andy Serkis: He is an incredibly actor. Woody is a phenomenal actor, he really is. He came in and did that thing that most actors do, for the first three minutes he just stared at the dots on my face. That can be scary. Literally, after the scene had started, that was gone because he was directly engaging with another actor’s eyes. That’s the point of it. It’s very interesting what different actors who have never been through this process think about it. And their fears, but until you actually do it, its very hard to explain. Woody absolutely realized what was required. Caesar and the Colonel are kind of drawn to each other, trying to understand each others philosophies. They happen to be fighting to the death for what they believe. There is this bizarre connection between them. As actors we kind of fell in love with each other. It was an amazing experience working with him.
War For the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on July 14, 2017.
