With Rise of the Planet of the Apes there was a risk that Fox were returning to a tainted well once too often, with the series still in the doldrums following the much-derided Tim Burton adaptation of the original story ten years ago. Yet the studio’s faith in British director Rupert Wyatt proves well placed, with a solid thriller which benefits from some excellent work from Andy Serkis and WETA to create the most believable CG character yet and one of the most surprising films of the year.

My original review of the film still stands, and if you missed the film on the big screen then I recommend you check the Blu-ray out as you’ll find a director whose technical skill, aptitude with the visual effects and necessary focus on the emotional heart of the film elevates ROTPOTA above so much soulless blockbusting fare. There is no doubt that Serkis’s Caesar is the most impressive presence in the film, though he doesn’t overshadow the human cast as much as popular opinion has it, while James Franco isn’t given too much to do but conveys the conflicted scientist who rescues his father form a degenerative illness after injecting him with a product tested on Apes (and Caesar’s mother in particular) which has incredible regenerative effects.

This is Caesar’s show and each time I’ve seen the film I marvel at the work done by Serkis and the FX teams, there is so much emotional detail written into the face and movement of the apes that being swept up by the story is all too easy. Wyatt keeps us close to the family unit at the centre of Caesar’s rise and it is our investment which makes the final, inevitable, fracturing all the more powerful. We know how the film will end, and there are plenty of subtle nods to the wider Apes mythology, but there is so much momentum behind the final events of the story that the result is a film which works on an emotional and intellectual level.

Like many people I was a fan of Rupert Wyatt’s film and pleased to see the critical and commercial success it found this summer, but I was concerned that the leap to the small screen would diminish the impact of the film. Certainly the visual quality of the film is carried over very well, with the work from WETA impressing just as much on the Blu-ray as it did at the cinemas, however my original problems with some of the shots in the final bridge attack still stuck out for me, visibly lacking a weight and connection to the real world. This is a small niggle, and in no way distracts from the flow of the film, particularly as the final onslaught picks up the pace and rounds off the film in fine style.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes highly recommended, not just as a showcase for the talents of Andy Serkis and the CGI wizards of WETA but also as a solid film whose power lies in the ability to play out a tragic drama while delivering some very impressive action sequences.

 ****~ (4/5)

Special Features

Rupert Wyatt’s commentary is worth listening to, as he displays and then explains his innate understanding of the conflicts and agendas at play in the world of the film, as well as the forces acting upon it from the fans and the previous films. Also of great interest was the behind the scenes documentaries which naturally focus on Andy Serkis and it is a treat to see his performance without the visual enhancements, if only to fully understand the rising call for the Award nominations. A few deleted scenes add a touch of colour to the film, but are otherwise safely confined to the cutting room floor. The documentaries are worth your time and overall it’s a great package to support a very satisfying film.

***½~ (3.5/5)

To mark the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-ray this Monday 12th December, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have given us three copies of the movie to give away to you lovely people on Blu-ray Triple Play. If that wasn’t enough, the winners will also receive a signed poster with signatures from  Andy Serkis, Rupert Wyatt and Dan Lemmon! Not bad eh!!

James Franco (127 Hours) stars as Will Rodman, a neuroscientist living in San Francisco trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by testing on chimpanzees, giving them a human level of intelligence.  After a test subject’s baby, Caesar, is orphaned, Will decides to raise him at home on his own with his Alzheimer-stricken father (John Lithgow; “Dexter”).  What begins simply as a continuation of his experiment quickly turns into a problem for Will, as Caesar is taken away from him and forced to live in a primate facility.  As Caesar’s intelligence continues to grow, he begins to stake his claim as the leader of his new primate counterparts, which will ultimately lead to the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

To be in with a chance of winning this rather epic prize, simply watch the clip above from the movie and answer the following question using the form below (and then click here to see our other competitions):

What colour tie is David Oyelowo’s character Steven Jacobs wearing (Clue: it’s two colours) in the clip above?

You can find out more about Rise of the Planet of the Apes at www.apesonyourstreet.co.uk and www.apesinteractivetrailer.co.uk.

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 19th December at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

We seem to have gone a little Halloween crazy at the moment but we know that so many of you love a good horror film that it’s hard not to! Sky Movies HD have been in touch and have very kindly given us five pairs of tickets to their silent ‘screaming’ of The Ring next Friday, 28th October at the RSA Vaults – with food and drinks from 10.30pm. The screening itself will kick off at midnight and and you’ll be given an iPad to watch the movie on using Sky Go. Transport home will be provided for those in zones 1-4. If you live outside that zone, you’ll need to make alternative arrangements.

Full T&Cs are listed below but to enter for your chance to win, scroll down!

The Ring stars Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman, Jane Alexander and is directed by Gore Verbinski. If you’ve never seen it, prepare to be scared!

It sounded like just another urban legend-a videotape filled with nightmarish images, leading to a phone call foretelling the viewer’s death in exactly seven days. As a newspaper reporter, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) was naturally skeptical of the story, until four teenagers all met with mysterious deaths exactly one week after watching just such a tape. Allowing her investigative curiosity to get the better of her, Rachel tracks down the video·and watches it. Now, she must enlist the aid of her friend Noah (Martin Henderson) to save her life and the life of her son (David Dorfman). Together, they have just seven days to unravel the mystery of “The Ring. “

To be in with a chance if winning one of five pairs of tickets to The Ring screening, simply answer the following question using the form below:

Who directed the movie, The Ring?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

SKY TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. This promotion is open to residents of UK, Isle of Man, Channel Island and Republic of Ireland residents, aged 18 years or over. Proof of age may be required.  Employees (or family members of employees) of any British Sky Broadcasting Group company (“Sky”), companies associated with the Promotion and all affiliates of such companies may not enter the Promotion.
2. To take part in the Competition you need to participate in the HeyUGUys competition between Friday 21^st October and Monday 24^th October 2011. British Sky Broadcasting Limited (“Sky”) does not accept responsibility for network, computer hardware or software failures of any kind, which may restrict or delay your entry into the Competition.
3. Only one entry per person and per household is allowed.  Entries must not be sent through agents or third parties.
4. The prize includes:
5. 2 x entrance to the Sky Movies HD Halloween ‘silent-screaming’ of The Ring taking place at MIDNIGHT on Friday 28^th October at the RSA Vaults, 8 John Adam Street
   City of London WC2N 6EZ.
6. Prize includes food and drinks on arrival at 10.30pm-11pm, the provision of an iPad and headphones per person to use for the screening only plus complimentary transport home within TFL Zones 1-4 in Central London following the screening.  The prize
7. There is no cash alternative to the prize and unless agreed otherwise in writing the prize is non-refundable and non transferable.
8. Except in the case of death or personal injury arising from its negligence or in respect of fraud and so far as is permitted by law, the Promoter and its associated companies and agents exclude responsibility and all liabilities arising from any postponement, cancellation, delay or changes to the prize details beyond the Promoter’s control and for any act or default of any third party supplier.
9.  If the winners cannot be contacted within a reasonable time period or are not able or available to accept the prize for any reason which is beyond the Promoter’s reasonable control, then the Promoter reserves the right to award the prize to another entrant.
10. The Promoter’s decision is final and binding in all respects on all entrants.  No correspondence will be entered into. Entries that do not comply in full with these entry terms and conditions will be disqualified.
11. The name, county and photograph of the winners may be used by the Promoter and its associated companies for post-event publicity purposes. The winners agree to allow the Promoter to use their name and likeness for advertising and publicity purposes without additional remuneration.
12. With regards to data protection, in addition to the use specified above, the Promoter will use each winner’s, and each entrant’s, personal details for the purpose of administering this promotion.
13. Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions and agreed to be bound by them when entering this Promotion.
14. This Promotion, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. You irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this Promotion.

Until recently, writer-director Nick Murphy’s credits mostly included a few episodes of the odd TV series or documentary. He’s now starting to make a big name for himself with his first feature film, The Awakening, starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, due out in November.

Murphy is now set to go behind the camera again for another feature, Blood, which is to be an adaptation of the Bill Gallagher’s TV series, Conviction, which Gallagher will himself adapt, ScreenDaily report.

The project is already taking shape nicely, with three fantastic lead actors attached in the form of Paul Bettany (Priest), Brian Cox (X-Men 2), and Stephen Graham (Snatch), the last of which Murphy has already worked with on the 2009 TV series, Occupation.

Neal Street Productions, whose credits include Jarhead, Starter For 10, The Kite Runner, and Revolutionary Road, has already secured funding from BBC Films and the BFI, which is terrific news, and production is scheduled to begin in January next year.

Blood will be,

“about two policemen who kill a murder suspect and are then plunged into chaos when they are forced to investigate their own crime.”

Those two roles of the policeman, who are brothers, will presumably be filled by the awesome Bettany and Graham, both absolutely fantastic actors, and Cox will likely be playing their father, who, according to Wikipedia, in the original series is fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer’s.

I missed the original TV series when it was shown back in 2004, but I’m definitely tempted to hunt it down and watch it soon, because it sounds pretty awesome. As much as I tend to watch American television and films more than I do British, I must admit that the BBC often gets it so right when it comes to making good television.

Just from that basic premise, I can already see Bettany, who is by far one of my favourite British actors working at the moment, being beyond amazing in this role, and it really can’t come to the big screen fast enough for me. Hopefully with production already scheduled for the start of next year, I won’t have to wait too long to see the final product. This is going to be something to look forward to for sure.

To mark the release of The Veteran on DVD and Blu-ray on August 29th, Revolver Entertainment have given us five copies of the movie to give away on DVD.

Revolver Entertainment presents acclaimed British actor and BAFTA-nominee Toby Kebbell (Prince of Persia, Control, RocknRolla ) in The Veteran, the gritty, hard-hitting tale of Robert Miller, a young soldier returning from Afghanistan, unable to fit back into society and soon targeted as a clandestine operative to monitor suspected terrorists in Britain.

Writer/Director Matthew Hope (The Vanguard) helms this independent production, which he scripted with Robert Henry Craft, a former member of The Parachute Regiment who completed 24 years of exemplary service including active service worldwide. Although fiction, the film reflects on his experiences of adapting to civilian life, along with trying to self-manage PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Pertinent to the current social climate, The Veteran explores the link between the war on terror and the war on drugs, from the soldiers on the front line to the drug dealers on the streets of Britain and how both are controlled and manipulated directly and indirectly by the government.

The film is shot on location in London; featuring BAFTA and EMMY award winner and Golden Globe nominee Brian Cox CBE (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, X:Men X2), grime music star Ashley Thomas (Shank, 4.3.2.1), Tom Brooke (The Boat That Rocked, The Young Victoria), Tony Curran (The Adventures of Tin Tin) and Military trained Israeli actress Adi Bielski.

The Veteran brings together a host of talents to deliver a tension filled, cautionary story of a war closer to home.

To be in with a chance of winning the movie, simply answer the following question using the form below:

Who plays the character Robert Miller in the movie, The Veteran?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 5th September at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

With rumours swirling that the Ralph Fiennes directed Shakespeare adapatation Coriolanus will be present in some form at this year’s London Film Festival we’re starting to see more and more of the film.

A few scenes were shown to the crowds at the Big Screen event a few days ago and the sight of a bloodied Fiennes rallying his troops, then facing off against Gerard Butler’s Tullus Aufidius was truly something. The film has already found favour on the festival circuit and I’m hoping this will find a decent audience on its release early next year. James Nesbitt, Brian Cox and Vanessa Redgrave are in support.

The trailer was unveiled a few days ago and can be seen here, and the new poster from THR can be found below.

As Rise of the Planet of the Apes throws a banana at The Smurfs Movie to claim the number one spot at the box office on its opening weekend, we bring you a conversation with director Rupert Wyatt, and visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon where they discuss how they managed to capture Andy Serkis’ on set performance, and turn it into the digitally created star of the movie, Cesar.

On the collaboration between motion capture artists and animators

Rupert Wyatt: It’s definitely a collaboration. In a sense that you can’t have a human performer as soon as you go airborne. As soon as you go into an elevated world, you’re either dealing with wirework, which doesn’t even always work on every level, so you have to hand over – you pass the baton. What we always attempted to do in order to keep it as real world as possible, is never went into close up. When we said goodbye to our apes, when they started heading upwards, we always kept the camera further back, and allowed them to be portrayed by [key frame animation].

Certainly… the difference with something like Avatar, where you have the opportunity to work within a volume where you can go very airborne, in such a way that your environment becomes digital; the difference between that and our film is that we’re always working in a real location, or a real environment, so it became technically very challenging to put an actor 70 feet up, because – how do you do that? So I think we’ll get to that stage technically in the next film, where we can attempt to address that.

Dan Lemmon: In terms of the close ups, the real hero-acting, performance shots, that’s Andy Serkis playing Cesar. There is a little bit of confusion sometimes. There’s this notion of computer generated images – as if you push a button and the computer just makes you a picture. It’s a bit like talking about ‘hammer generated architecture’. You have to understand that it’s a tool that’s used by craftsmen to create images. There’s nothing automatic about it, but the important thing to understand is that Andy Serkis is the actor who is giving the performance, and who’s making the decisions for what Cesar’s doing – making the facial shapes. He’s got an incredibly expressive face as well – we’re able to get a great performance from him, and then take that and essentially, if we’re doing our job correctly, we’re essentially fitting digital makeup that’s being applied after the fact. He’s not wearing it on the day, but it’s being applied afterwards.

On the slight changes made from Andy Serkis’ performance Cesar’s

RW: The thing that we were always facing the challenge of is that Andy does not look like a chimpanzee. He does not have a heavy brow like a chimp, so if you’ve got Andy emoting in such a way that that brow is displaying fear in terms of his performance, and then you put that into your avatar, your Cesar model, and suddenly that brow, because it’s heavier, portrays something completely different – aggression for example. So then you’re thinking, ‘OK, that’s not true to the performance’ so of course you can then manipulate it. In our case, what we did, we made the brow not quite so protruding on Cesar in order to make it faithful to Andy’s performance. That’s part of the process Dan and I would work on every day, on both sides – our editorial team in LA, and Weta down in New Zealand. Every day we’d collaborate by way of Cinesync to look at every shot, and every stage in every shot, and work out – always referencing back to what we shot on the day saying ‘let’s go back to the performance. How does it look, and how does it relate?’

DL: I think that’s the key. Because, like Rupert was saying, there’s vast anatomical differences between Cesar and Andy, it requires the skill of craftsmen and animators to map that performance from one to the other, but we were always looking back to Andy as the gold standard, the reference for what, emotionally, should be coming through, but also physically. We took a lot of the signiature wrinkles, the key shapes, and the silhouettes of his eyes, the nose and the mouth – even though the nose and the mouth were different on the chimpanzee than they were on Andy, we’re still using those beats and those changes to drive the digital character.

On the difficulty of conveying certain emotions

DL: I think, because of the muzzle structure of the apes, some of the tight-lipped things, the disdain shapes, we have to figure out what that look like on a chimpanzee and get that to carry across. Rupert touched on the eyebrows as well, that was really critical. On the original concept art we had quite a bit of a heavier brow, but when it got to the animation we found that we weren’t able to match what Andy was doing, get the same emotion through with this larger brow. We looked at Andy, we looked at a lot of reference of other chimpanzees that had a less prominent brow, and made some small modifications that allowed us to get a lot bigger range of performance out of that.

On replacing a full-sized, adult human actor with a much smaller digital chimpanzee

RW: Traditionally you shoot the Andy playing Cesar, and then you shoot James Franco playing the human character he’s interacting with. You do that in a shot. Let’s say Cesar then shuts the door on James, once you’ve got that shot, you take Andy out of that shot, and then you shoot the clean plate, which is James acting to thin air, and a special effects guy with a filament wire closing the door at just the right time, coupled with, if the camera’s moving, you have to then time the move –we didn’t use motion control, so we had to do it through manual operation to match it.

That’s really time consuming, and it’s a frigging headache, but, from a technical point of view, what it allows Weta to do is then, because Cesar is quite a few inches shorter than Andy, and his anatomy is so different, they don’t have to paint Andy out of the shot, they can just use the clean plate, and they can put the digital Cesar into the shot, with the same performance, because they’ve just captured the performance in the previous take. The downside of it is that you lose something of it in the human performance. If James is acting to thin air, his eye lines may be off, or his energy’s a bit down. He’s not got that something to bounce off, and so it was never quite as good. Sometimes it was OK, if it was a simple shot, but more often than not, his energy would drop, so what I was always asking of Dan and Weta, was ‘could we just use the performance pass?’ and that involves them digitally painting out Andy, and then putting Cesar in. And I think I’m right in saying that the technology is becoming more evolved to allow you to do that?

DL: Yeah, it’s certainly easier now than it was in Lord of the Rings, for example, but we had to take it on a shot by shot basis. Some cases are easier than others. One of the big challenging ones was when we had the toddler Cesar – the three foot high version –interacting with James Franco. Andy Serkis was playing the three foot high Cesar, so he was just physically a whole lot bigger than Cesar. There was the scene where they were up in the attic, and Caroline –Freida Pinto’s character – was there for the first time, and they’re wrestling on the bed. That was a bit of a negotiation on the day on the set, trying to figure out how we could get that level of interaction in a way that finishing the shot would be possible. Any time that you have a performance capture actor’s body crossing over somebody’s face, we have to put his face back on, or we have to cover it up with the digital chimp. If the digital chimp is only [so] big, he can only cover up so much, and painting back somebody’s face can be really difficult. Some might say, impossible.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is in cinemas now.

Here at HeyUGuys, Andy Serkis has kicked off a Rise of the Planet of the Apes question and answer challenge, which will test your intelligence, your wit and your use of the comments section!

The answer to the first question will be revealed tomorrow on the official UK Rise of the Planet of the Apes Facebook page – www.facebook.com/apeswillriseUK

Put your answers in the comments box below or on the official UK Rise of the Planet of the Apes Facebook page.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is out in cinemas everywhere now!

Ralph Fiennes – actor, ambassador, Dark Lord – will make his directorial début with Coriolanus, an updated adaptation of the William Shakespeare play of the same name.

The trailer is now online and it looks incredibly promising, boasting as it does a winning ensemble of Britain’s finest.

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and Jessica Chastain, John Logan’s screenplay adapts the tale of a banished hero who must ally with a sworn enemy in order to seek revenge on his home city.

The people of Rome are hungry – they cannot afford to eat.  Riots are widespread. Their vitriol turns on Caius Martius (later to be Coriolanus), Rome’s foremost general who despises the people.

Simultaneously, Rome is at war with the Volsces, a neighbouring state which is lead by Caius Martius’s sworn enemy, Tullus Aufidius. When Caius’s outstanding courage secures the Volscian city of Corioles for Rome and the Volscians are defeated, Caius is newly named Coriolanus in honor of his victory. The people’s anger subsides.

His mother Volumnia, who has instilled in him a strict martial code of honor, anticipates Coriolanus being elected ‘Consul’ – a ruling position in the Roman senate. In order to be voted Consul, Coriolanus must secure the people’s support. However, the great warrior is loath to engage in the necessary glad-handing and political canvassing that he sees as artificial and contradictory of his personal code.

Under pressure he relents but with the minimum of civility. The Tribunes, the elected representatives of the people, persuade the masses that they should renege on their votes and refuse Coriolanus the office of Consul. Coriolanus is enraged and his vocal aggression leads to a major riot after which he is banished from Rome.

Alone now, he takes himself to the city of Antium, the Volscian capital, home to his enemy, Tullus Aufidius.  Coriolanus seeks out Aufidius and offers either his life or his services against his parent city. Confronted by his greatest enemy, Tullus must decide whether to accept Coriolanus as his warrior in arms and seize the opportunity to defeat an Empire, or to destroy his life-long rival and try to take Rome alone, while in its most vulnerable state…

Coriolanus is scheduled for a limited U.S. release on December 2nd of this year, with a slightly later U.K. release set for January 20th, 2012.

Love the marketing for this one! I’m not sure who has made them but someone clever has thought up these new posters for Rise of the Planet of the Apes which hits UK cinemas NOW! You can see Jon’s glowing review of the movie here and all our coverage of the film which is rather extensive here.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits UK cinemas NOW!

Suorce: IMPA

Here’s another new featurette from Twentieth Century Fox’s new movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and this time we get to find out about how they cast the apes. This featurette coincides very nicely with the WETA interviews which I put up recently. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits UK cinemas next Friday, 11th August. You can read Jon’s review of the movie here.

Source: Yahoo

In a bid to make Planet of the Apes look like a Michael Bay movie, the  Indian marketing department at Twentieth Century Fox have decided to give us lots of head-shots, helicopters and destruction! What’s not to like! Doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the UK and US marketing campaigns though does it! Does that matter? No, not really because we’ve seen the movie and we love it (Read Jon’s review here).

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits UK cinemas 11th August.

Source: IMPA

We loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes .

A surprising amount in fact – we called it the ‘surprise hit of the summer’ and we meant every one of those words. It’s out on the 11th of August and we have various other competitions running for this film but none quite like this…

These T-shirts are official Apes merchandise but you won’t be plucking them from the local habadashery any time soon – these are limited edition and have a rude word on them so just be wary of that when you order one for your Nan.

We’ve got 5 XL (male) and 5 L (female) T-shirts to give away and if you want to know more about the film aside from our glowing review, check out these pages on the internets…

• Official Facebook page
• Official Twitter
• Official YouTube channel
• Official website

Now – when you decide to go to see the film wouldn’t you like to mosey up to your local multiplex or arthouse shadow theatre in one of these…

All you need to do is answer the following question using the form below,

Which actor plays the ape Caesar?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 15th August at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available
• Prize is non-exchangeable and non-refundable. There is no cash alternative
• The Editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Over the past few years, we’ve seen effects house, WETA do some simply amazing things inside a computer to create some of the mos astonishing visually amazing movies ever. They have been responsible for effects in movies including King Kong, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and most recently, some movie that you may have heard of called Avatar. Their latest movie is Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the more I see from it (and reviews I read – ours here) the more I want to see it.

In this featurette latest featurette released by Twentieth Century Fox (which I found on the legendary FirstShowing), we get to hear from the visual effects gurus who make the impossible possible. When you watch the movie, you’ll forget that these chimps have all been built in a computer and after watching this featurette, you’ll see why. In the featurette, you’ll see interviews with director Rupert Wyatt, and Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Letteri from WETA along with many other members of his amazing team. You’ll also get to see Andy Sirkis who has to be the king of motion capture in action.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits UK cinemas 11th August.

We are firmly in blockbuster season, and in a time when the common wisdom has it that you are encouraged to switch off your brain to enjoy what’s on offer there comes a film about the power of intelligence.

Fox were asking a lot of Rupert Wyatt, the British director who found himself in charge of one of the most well known, if not now well regarded, franchises in cinema. After two films, the last being the 2008 crime thriller The Escapist, Wyatt showcased his take on the origin story for the Apes series with riot footage, prison drama and wildlife and science  documentaries spliced together, and all of these elements make it in to the final film but with one crucial addition – an emotional heartbeat that engages completely.

The set up is simple. It revolves around two beings: James Franco’s scientist who is working to cure the disease killing his father and in doing so causes the apes he is testing to experience increased intelligence and Caesar, one of these apes, cut off from his own kind and emotionally isolated, feeling the burn of not being one thing or another. There are not too many leaps to make to see how this premise goes horribly wrong.

Franco and John Lithgow make a decent father and son pair, and their scenes with the infant Caesar are crucially engaging. Andy Serkis doing some of his best work here.  Sadly the same cannot be said for the rest of the cast.  The human characters are where the film lets itself down with David Oyelowo’s Greedy Corporate Bloke simply being greedy and corporate.

The script gives the actors nothing more to work with; Arsehole Neighbour being just that. Tom Felton’s Angry Ape Handler is incredibly one note, given nothing more to do than sneer and snarl – he’s an actor surely capable of more. Frieda Pinto’s vet (Ape Doctor? We’re never too sure) adds little to the film. But at its heart this is a story about a family in trouble which rebuilds itself only to see everything torn apart.  Without this the film would have been a visual effect showcase riding on the dead horse of a franchise which used to be interesting.

There are some clear nods to the 1968 film, some playful and other obvious, others embedded into the sort providing a clear line to the events of the first film; there is one moment that was in danger of pushing the film into parody but a crucial story point met it just before we were carried over and the film never looked back.

The film shifts tone and we enter the riot of apes and this is where all the emotion we have invested pays off, but as the pace picks up a few glaring plot holes are apparent, the effect is not disastrous but it does harm the flow as it seems the careful planning of the early part of the film is now lost in the mad crazy ape rampage.

The battle on the Golden Gate bridge is great fun, and any questions about exactly how the human race, who surely should be able to wipe out the Aperising in a drop of a bomb or two, disappear as the sheer force and speed of the attack is startling to see. At the film’s end we are left with a brief hint of what happens next during the credits, in a moment stolen appropriately from Twelve Monkeys.

Not since E.T. has a non human character been so convincing and so capable of wringing emotion from even the stoniest of heart. Caesar has ensured that Jar Jar Binks is dead in the water, this really is leaps and bounds over Jackson’s Gollum and even Avatar. Many times I forgot the creatures were not real – another testament to Weta’s work and Wyatt’s handling of the material. Only towards the end, when the apes are rising up over the bridge do the seams show but the work with Serkis’s Caesar is utterly convincing and that is crucial to us buying this story.

Rupert Wyatt and Weta have come together to produce a film that is far better than it had any right to be. I knew that the intention was always to grip at the heart before ripping it out, but I had no idea how successful they would be at doing just that. The visual effects are the best I’ve seen in a long time, and while the script lets the film down overall Rise of the Planet of the Apes may just be the surprise hit of the Summer.

****~ (4/5)

To celebrate the release of their new movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes on 11th August, Twentieth Century Fox have given us four sets of goodie bags to give away. Each bag contains a pen, keychain, Blackberry Case, metallic notepad, t shirt and a watch and then one extra goodie bag winning the same things and as an extra a Planet of the Apes glow in the dark USB key! We’ve only got four of these great prizes so to enter, scroll down and answer the question….

Synopsis:  RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes stars James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto and is directed by Rupert Wyatt. You can keep track of all our ‘Apes’ coverage right here.

To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, simply answer the following question using the form below:

What is the name of the actor who plays the character, Caesar in the movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 11th August at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available
• Prize is non-exchangeable and non-refundable. There is no cash alternative
• The Editor’s decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

There are only a few weeks left to prepare for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Fox have debuted another trailer for the film out at San Diego for Comic-Con.

If I’m honest this clip stretches the definition of the word ‘tease’ and actually gives away an entire plot line revealing how a character dies, who kills him and from the earlier moments included here you can pretty much work out the entire section of the plot relating to them. Consider that a spoiler warning.

More rising apes are glimsped here and every new look at the work Weta have done with the performance capture actors compounds my expectation and my faith that Fox and Wyatt have turned something that could have easily been a straight to DVD release into one of the most anticipated films of the summer.

Here’s your clip – keep that spoiler warning in mind.

Here’s the third clip from Twentieth Century Fox’s summer movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. There’s quite a few new bits of footage in there so check them out below. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Andy Serkis and Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire fame.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES combines fantastic storytelling with the next leap in Visual Effects for an emotional and action-packed motion picture experience unlike any other. Man’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that leads to intelligence in apes and a challenge to our place as the dominant species on the planet. Caesar, the first intelligent ape, is betrayed by humans and rises up to lead his species’ spectacular race to freedom and the ultimate showdown with Man. In Caesar, WETA – the Oscar-winning visual effects team behind Avatar – have created a CGI ape that delivers a dramatic performance of unprecedented emotion and intelligence.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits UK cinemas 11th August.

Source: MSN

As August’s release date for Rise of the Planet of the Apes draws ever closer, we are getting more and more in the way of publicity material and so far, all of it is pretty strong. This time, we have a clip introduced by Andy Serkis, once again on ape perf-cap duties as Caesar. We then see a longer clip featuring some material already familiar to us from the trailers, showing Caesar making his escape and then sharing the brain-developing goodness with his fellow simians.

Although it is a short clip, the sense of atmosphere and danger is built very impressively and bodes well for the finished film, which seems to demonstrate a welcome melding of excitement and smarts. This may yet mark itself out as one of the more intelligent blockbusters of the silly season, though the field of competition does not run terribly deep in that respect.

All will be revealed in a few short weeks.

Source of all the source-iness: MovieFone.

Here’s the first (4 minute long!) clip from the new Twentieth Century Fox movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes which is introduced by the fabulous Andy Sirkis who plays Caesar in the movie. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt and stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis, Brian Cox, and Tom Felton. If you missed the first trailer for the movie which was released a few weeks ago, you can have a watch here.

An origin story in the true sense of the word, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is set in present day San Francisco. The film is a reality-based cautionary tale — a science fiction/science-fact blend where mankind’s hubris leads to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Oscar(R)-winning visual effects house WETA Digital – employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for “Avatar” – will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

It hits UK cinemas 12th August.