Fret not--Tim Burton will not be directing it.The film, tentatively titled Rise of the Apes, will be released on June 24, 2011. The plot sounds similar to the early, but scuttled, proposal for Caesar, in which a scientist genetically engineers a super intelligent ape who turns against humanity when the scientist’s wife is killed senselessly during a crime. Rise of the Apes involves genetic engineering that results in altering apes in general which results in a conflict between apes and man for dominance.
It sounds like the powers that be are packing enough of the entire original quintet to ensure Rise of the Apes can stand alone if it is not enough of a hit to merit sequels. Learning from Terminator: Salvation, I see.
Rise of the Apes will be directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa. The movie will rely heavily on CGI apes.
Wyatt is best known as the director of The Escapist, a nifty British film starring Brian Cox as a convict in the fifteen year of a life sentence without parole who gathers some fellow inmates together to plot an escape. It is not The Shawshank Redemption, but it is worth watching.
Silver and Jaffa wrote The Relic. I do not recall anything remarkable about the film, but it has been ten or twelve years since I have seen it. It was a cautionary tale about meddling with forces beyond human control, so someone thinks it captures the right tone. We shall see.
I cannot help but see the similarities with the premise of Caprica and the birth of the Cylons. The toasters rose up from slavery to destroy humanity like the apes apparently will. Do I catch a definite hint of Battlestar Galactica in the new apes project?
