Los Angeles, June 30 (IANS) Director Matt Reeves says he had spent over a year at a digital studio to shoot over 1000 apes scenes involving special effects to make the whole experience as realistic as possible in his film “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”.
A technical crew of hundreds at Weta digital studios in New Zealand laboured for a year to composite some 1,200 special effects shots just of the apes, far more digitized animals than in the first movie, Matt said in a statement.
“My hope is that audiences – even knowing about the visual effects – will say, ‘Wait a minute. There weren’t real live apes in the movie at all.'” he added.
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is the follow up to the blockbuster film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.
British actor Andy Serkis, who with the help of motion capture has wowed audiences around the world with his roles such as King Kong and Gollum, has played Caesar, the ape in the movie.
Serkis says the challenges in the role of Caesar have evolved.
“He’s still developing his inner-ape, this time by galvanizing this group of orangutans and chimps and gorillas – 2,000 strong -while being an open and empathetic leader. Caesar is a father now, he’s got a mate, a son and a baby. He is responsible for the survival of a community,” Serkis said.
“On the other hand, he has empathy for humans, and still, deep down, he feels a need to be able to communicate with them,” he added.
The film also explores how the apes evolved from the mostly mute but intelligent animals of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, into articulate, civilized beings.
“This time there is an evolution in linguistic terms. Caesar communicates through the sign language he was taught, which has become a unifying way of speaking with the other apes,” Serkis added.
