This title may very well be the longest one that we will see this year. Based on the fourth film in the original Planet of the Apes series (probably the only one I never actually saw, but know about because I was a fan of the series when the 30 anniversary of the series happened in 1998 and they made a documentary about the entire five film series called Behind the Planet of the Apes). I was curious about the Planet of the Apes because of many rumored remakes that kept popping up on Cinescape magazine. One even involving Arnold Schwarzenegger; that was back during the days when I purchased a bunch of movie leaked movie script from the local group of sellers that went around to the malls. The person I went to had a bunch of scripts, including a version of Planet of the Apes that involved time travel which was never made. It wasn’t very good. But back in those days I was hungry and I wanted whatever  I could to study film. This was way before going to college too.

Anyway, the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes was a huge disappointment. They gave us the most interesting thing at the very end and while I know they did pretty well with making back money, I do think that 20th Century Fox was a little burnt out of spending money on potential Apes remakes. They essentially had been doing for years what Warner Bros. was doing with a Superman reboot (back before Superman Returns was even a glimmer in anyone’s eyes) and spending tons of money on something very lackluster.

So, I remember seeing pretty much all the Apes movies, from the ultimate classic: Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes (the local Blockbuster–now closed–didn’t have Conquest of the Planet of the Apes; which is what Rise is based on) and finally Battle for the Planet of the Apes. I have to say, Rise of the Planet of the Apes never intrigue me. I didn’t know why they would want to spend there time on this entry into the franchise. It was the least interesting one in the original series, at least to me. I didn’t understand how they would be able to pull off what happens in Conquest without having to heavily explain some back story. And, to explain to you what the back story is would take a lot of time, it goes back to the second movie. In fact, in the film series itself, it didn’t make any sense! But from what I can see from this teaser trailer, they have not only made it work, but made it make sense and if this film is done well I can see this being the beginning of the new franchise that they were hoping for with the Tim Burton movie.

Fans of the original series may recall that the Ape at the fore front of Conquest was named Caesar, and above in the picture is that such Ape, now played by a motion capture Andy Serkis who you may recall as the person not only behind Gollum from The Lord of the Ring, but also as Kong in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. So, Serkis is no amateur at motion capture or acting like an ape, he’s the perfect person for this. They choose motion capture because they wanted the most realistic look of an ape ever and they didn’t think they could achieve that with makeup.

Let me know what you think: