Many would argue that this Summer movie season began back in late April but, for me, releases such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, Maleficent and Edge of Tomorrow fall into the pre-summer category; the real holiday battle begins in June and runs through August. Transformers: Age of Extinction was set to kick off the season in style but has flopped with critics. Eyes are turning to Guardians of the Galaxy, Hercules and (sigh) The Expendables 3 but, with an immensely positive initial response and boasting the best special effects of this year so far, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes seems the likely candidate to carry the summer.
Its two most valuable players are star Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, The Prestige, The Adventures of Tintin, Godzilla, King Kong) and director Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield, Felicity), a former protogee of JJ Abrams, the man who will revive Star Wars. Reeves has now revealed how the brilliant Serkis went about getting cast in Episode VII. “I showed him a bit of the movie,” he announces.
“I wanted to get some feedback. And I know that he had known and really loved Andy Serkis. But it’s the same experience I had coming in and asking to see all the footage of Andy from Rise with him in his helmet cam, so that I could understand exactly what the process was. And the thing that struck me, and actually got me so excited, was the mystery behind how great he is, is that he’s great. That he’s an amazing actor. And the scenes that I showed Abrams were of Andy just in mo-cap. And he was like, “Oh my God, he’s an incredible actor.” He was so blown away.”
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will star Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit McPhee, Toby Kebbell, Judy Greer and Gary Oldman while Star Wars features Domnhall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Carrie Fisher, Max Von Sydow, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – July 17th
Star Wars: Episode VII – December 18th 2015
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