A new simian has been drafted as Steve Zahn has just signed on to co-star in ‘War of the Planet of the Apes.’
Zahn recently starred in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ as Tucker and in the comedy fantasy film ‘Knights of the Badassdom,’ however, many may recognize him from the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ trilogy as Frank Heffley and as the voice of Monty in ‘Stuart Little.’ But to me, he’ll always be the goofy yet loveable second guitarist Lenny Haise in the film ‘That Thing You Do.’
Since Zahn will be playing a primate, his role will entirely be in filmed via motion capture photography much like Andy Serkis’ role in the previous two ‘Apes’ film, ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’ Not much more is known about his role so it will be interesting to see if he’ll play someone who is reluctant to fight or one that is hell bent for war.
Matt Reeves will return to direct the third film in the franchise and has stated in the past that ‘War of the Planet of the Apes’ will be an “epic” film:
“It’s going to be an epic story. I think you’ve probably read that I sort of described it where in the first film was very much about his rise from humble beginnings to being a revolutionary. The second movie was about having to rise to the challenge of being a great leader in the most difficult of times. This is going to be the story that is going to cement his status as a seminal figure in ape history, and sort of leads to an almost biblical status. He is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses.”
Much of the plot and the characters in the film are being kept under wraps but we do know that besides Reeves returning to helm the film, Serkis will reprise his role as Caesar and Woody Harrelson and Gabriel Chavarria have been tapped to play two of the humans. With the movie set to be released over a year from now, there is still plenty of time to find out more information when production is under way.
In the meantime, you can hear Zahn in the upcoming Pixar film ‘The Good Dinosaur’ which will be in theaters on November 25.
‘War of the Planet of the Apes’ is slated attack on July 14, 2017.
Source: Variety
