WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017) ● Released by July 14th, 2017 ● 2 hours 20 minutes ● $150,000,000 (estimated) budget ● Matt Reeves directed ● Chernin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment ● Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, thematic elements, and some disturbing images QUICK THOUGHTS: ● Demetri Panos: ● OPINION: WITH MATT REEVES FLOURISHED STORYTELLLING, QUALITY ​ PERFORMANCES, GRAND SCALE NARRATIVE; WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES CAPS OFF A RARE TRILOGY FEAT WHERE THE MOVIES JUST GOT BETTER AS THEY WENT ALONG. REEVES NOT ONLY ABLE TO DIRECT BIG SCALE ACTION, HE COMPOSES SHOTS THAT NOT ONLY CAPTURE INTIMATE EXPRESSION BUT GRAND SCALE LANDSCAPE. SPEAKING OF EXPRESSION; MOTION CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY IS REACHING IF NOT AT ITS PEAK! I ARGUE THAT IT IS SO GOOD, IT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A PROSTHETIC. TO TAKE THAT ONE STEP FURTHER, THE ACADEMY SHOULD NOW TAKE NOTE AND NOT BE HINDERED TO NOTICE PERFORMANCES UNDER MOTION CAPTURE. IT IS NOT UNLIKE NOMINATING JOHN HURT FROM ELEPHANT MAN OR ERIC STOLTZ FROM MASK. ANDY SERKIS PERFORMANCE HERE TRANSCENDS THE MASK. HE PLAYS CEASAR AS A LEADER WHO NOT ONLY GRAPPLES WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY OF HIS RACE BUT WITH RAMIFICATIONS OF HIS DECISIONS. HIS IS A GRIPPING PERFORMANCE, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE SUMMER. WOODY HARRELSON’S, THE COLONEL, PERFORMANCE TEETERS FROM GOING OVER THE TOP BUT HIS CHARACTER MIRRORS REAL IFE PERSONAS, WHILE ONE CAN UNDERSTAND THE COLONEL’S MOTIVIATION, HIS ACTIONS ARE NOT THOSE BOUND BY RATIONALITY AND THEREFORE SCARY. ALSO, PROPS TO AMIAH MILLER WHOSE RE-IMAGINED NOVA IS ENDEARING AND STRONG. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES WRAPS UP CEASARS STORY WITH RESPECT. IT PROVIDES QUALITY SCIENCE FICTION ENTERTAINMENT THAT MIRRORS CURRENT SOCIETY WITHOUT BEATING AN AUDIENCE OVER THE HEAD BECAUSE IT REMEMBERS TO ENTERTAIN FIRST. ● Phil Svitek DEVELOPMENT ● After seeing his cut of Dawn, 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment signed Matt Reeves to ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ return as director for a third installment of the reboot series ● In January 2014, the studio announced a third installment with Reeves returning to direct and co-write along with Bomback, and Peter Chernin, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver serving as producers ● During an interview in mid-November 2014 with MTV, Andy Serkis said they did not know the ​ ​ next film's setting. "...It could be five years after the event. It could be the night after the events of where we left 'Dawn.'" ​ ​ ● In May 2015, the title was first given as War of the Planet of the Apes ​ WRITING (Mark Bomback, Matt Reeves) ​ ● Mark Bomback was born on August 29, 1971 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) ​ ​ ​ ​ and The Wolverine (2013) ​ ​ ● When director Reeves and screenwriter Bomback came on board to helm Dawn, the film already ​ ​ had a release date, which led to an accelerated production schedule ● However, with the third installment, Fox wanted to give the duo plenty of time to write and make the film. Taking advantage of this, the two bonded with each other more than before ● In interviews for Dawn, Reeves talked a bit about the inevitable war Caesar would have with the ​ ​ humans: "As this story continues, we know that war is not avoided by the end of Dawn. That is ​ ​ going to take us into the world of what he is grappling with. Where he is going to be thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with, and was hoping he could avoid. And now he is right in the middle of it. The things that happen in that story test him in huge ways, in the ways in which his relationship with Koba haunts him deeply. 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." ​ ​ ● At New York Comic-Con 2016, Reeves explained that he and Bomback were influenced by many ​ ​ films before writing. He said, "One of the first things that Mark and I did because we had just finished Dawn was that we decided to watch a million movies. We decided to do what people ​ ​ fantasize what Hollywood screenwriters get to do but no one actually does. We got Fox to give us a theater and we watched movie after movie. We watched every Planet of the Apes movie, war ​ ​ movies, westerns, Empire Strikes Back... We just thought, 'We have to pretend we have all the ​ ​ time in the world,' even though we had limited time. We got really inspired." ● Another comparison is when Caesar sets off on a journey to find the Colonel, flanked by a posse of close friends – a situation Reeves explicitly ties to Clint Eastwood's war-weary soldier in The ​ ​ ​ Outlaw Josey Wales ● Influences from the film Apocalypse Now, notably Woody Harrelson's character the Colonel and ​ ​ his Alpha-Omega faction being similar to Colonel Kurtz's renegade army, were also noted by ​ ​ several journalists ● While promoting Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Andy Serkis was asked if the AlZ-113 ​ ​ ​ ​ drug had also affected apes outside of Caesar's tribe. Matt Reeves and co-writer Mark Bomback ​ ​ ​ took note of this, which led to the introduction of Bad Ape in this film STORY/TOPICS CAST: ● In August 2015, Deadline reported that Gabriel Chavarria was cast as one of the humans in the ​ ​ ​ ​ film ● In September 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Woody Harrelson had been cast as ​ ​ ​ ​ the film's antagonist, and that Chavarria's role was small ● In October 2015, TheWrap reported that Steve Zahn was cast as a new ape in the film, retitled as ​ ​ ​ ​ War for the Planet of the Apes ● It was also announced that young actress Amiah Miller was cast as one of the film's humans, with ​ Judy Greer and Karin Konoval reprising their roles as Cornelia and Maurice, w​ hile Aleks Paunovic ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ and Sara Canning were cast as the new apes. ​ ​ Apes ● Andy Serkis as Caesar, an intelligent common chimpanzee who is leader to a tribe of genetically ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ enhanced apes ○ Andy Serkis is an English film actor, director and author. He is best known for his performance capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for such computer-generated characters as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), the eponymous King Kong ​ ​ in the 2005 film, Caesar in Rise (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), ​ ​ ​ ​ Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of ​ Tintin(2011) and Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) ​ ​ ​ ○ Serkis also earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of serial killer Ian Brady in the British television film Longford (2006) and was nominated for a BAFTA ​ ​ Award for his portrayal of new wave and punk rock musician Ian Dury in the biopic Sex & ​ Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010). In 2015, he had a small role in Avengers: Age of Ultron ​ ​ (2015). Serkis has his own motion capture workshop, The Imaginarium Studios in London, which he will use for his directorial debut, Jungle Book (2018) ​ ​ ● Steve Zahn as "Bad Ape", a common chimpanzee who lived in a zoo before the Simian Flu ​ outbreak and was a hermit before joining Caesar's group ○ Steve Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, to Zelda, who worked at a YMCA, and Carleton Edward Zahn, a Lutheran pastor. His father is of German and Swedish descent and his mother is of German ancestry. Zahn's career kicked off in his native Minnesota when he crashed the audition of a local stage production of "Biloxi Blues" and won the lead role. Next trained at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA; then moved to New York City where he won a role touring for 13 months in national company of Tommy ​ Tune-directed version of "Bye Bye Birdie". Back in New York, he played opposite Ethan ​ ​ Hawke in "Sophistry" at Playwright's Horizon, where Ben Stiller noticed him and cast him ​ ​ ​ and Hawke in Reality Bites (1994) ​ ​ ○ Steve Zahn admitted in a Film4 interview that he cried after seeing the completed film for ​ the first time as he was so moved by it ● Karin Konoval as Maurice, a wise and benevolent Bornean orangutan who is Caesar's adviser. ​ ​ ​ ● Terry Notary as Rocket, a common chimpanzee who is Caesar's brother-figure. ​ ● Ty Olsson as Red, a Western lowland gorilla who was once a follower of Koba, now serving the ​ ​ ​ Colonel to defeat Caesar. Olsson previously played Chief Hamill in Rise. ​ ​ ● Michael Adamthwaite as Luca, a Western lowland gorilla in Caesar's tribe. ​ ● Toby Kebbell reprises his role as Koba from Dawn, appearing in Caesar's hallucinations ​ ​ ​ ○ Toby Kebbell, who portrayed Koba in Dawn, has expressed interest in reprising his role ​ ​ ​ or performing as other characters. Plans to include Koba in a larger role in the film were abandoned early, with Bomback saying, "If you stayed until the very end of Dawn of the ​ Planet of the Apes, you hear Koba’s breathing.