This past year, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ garnered a barrage of unexpected praise from critics and performed well at the box office. About a month ago it was reported that ‘Lord of the Rings’ vet Andy Serkis, king of motion captured perfromance, had landed a huge deal to reprise the role of Caesar in a sequel. Director Rupert Wyatt, in the commentary track of the recently released Blu Ray of the film has revealed his thinking about a follow up, giving us an idea of as to where he’s taking the storyline.
Says Wyatt, “We definitely needed to just lay the groundwork for how we’re going to level the playing field for the next part of the story which is the real conflict between humans and apes on a far bigger scale. Where we start that story remains to be seen but my guess is it will be a generation after. In human years that’s eight years for a chimpanzee or any ape, actually… we’re setting up, perhaps, why humanity is going to be vulnerable enough for this ever growing army of intelligent apes and their offspring to be able to take us on.”
The director also details that a sequel will focus on the relationship between Caesar, the de facto leader of the apes and Koba, the scarred ape from this summer’s blockbuster. “He’s a character who’s going to go far in the mythology, I think,” says Wyatt, “A really interesting counterpart to Caesar. He’s the bad apple.”
Although there are many die hard fans of the original series of Apes films, this year’s installment/reboot was a surprise hit with the critics in a way that the 70’s sequels never were. Are you excited to see a follow up? Think Koba is a strong enough antagonist for Serkis’ Caesar? Let us know in the comments!
