Serkis’ Role in Making the Next Planet of the Apes Movie

Summary

Andy Serkis delivered a compelling performance in the Planet of the Apes reboot series and is an integral part of the upcoming project, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Andy Serkis helped director Wes Ball in preparing the actors to play apes in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Andy Serkis delivered the best performance of his career as the intelligent ape Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. In the series, his character leads the ape uprising.

Serkis played Caesar with a great amount of realism and emotion and was the heart and soul of the series. Therefore, Serkis was on the director’s mind while casting for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the next film in the franchise. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set to release on May 10.

Serkis’ Role in Making the Next Planet of the Apes Movie — Caesar in Planet of the Apes | Source: IMDb

As per Collider , Wes Ball, the director of the upcoming project, felt the need to bring Serkis on board even before production started. Speaking to Meredith Loftus from Collider, Ball explained that he had worked with Andy earlier and knew him a little.

Ball decided it would be great to rope Andy in to play another character and spoke to him about the script and the characters. Here’s what he said:

I talked to Andy a lot. I showed him the script. Told him what the ideas were. I talked to him, showed him the concept art, all this kind of stuff.

The director also mentioned that he wants to do “something different” with the film, and the apes are going to “talk more” in the movie. He also pointed out that there’s a clear progression in how Caesar and the other apes develop their speech from the 2011 Rise of the Planet Apes to the 2017 War for the Planet of the Apes.

The previous films portrayed the apes with an animalistic quality. However, in the upcoming project, Ball wants to portray them similarly to the original film made in the 1960s.

Ball asked for Serkis’ help to achieve this progression, and the actor kindly took the time to sit with the other actors playing the apes. He explained what exactly is expected of them in the film. Ball explained:

So I asked Andy if he could come talk to the gang and give them some pointers and he was like “say no more.” I mean, Andy’s like seriously the nicest freaking guy ever. So generous and just kind and just supportive. He talked to all the actors and just told them what he had learned. Our big thing is you can’t pretend to be an ape. You have to be an ape. And that’s hard for actors when you’re walking around with these silly suits and you’re making ape noises.

The guys later went through six weeks of “ape camp” to improve their performance and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. We can also see what came of it on May 10, when the film hits theaters.

About Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is an upcoming American science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Patrick Aison, and produced by Joe Hartwick Jr., Jaffa, Silver, and Jason Reed.

It serves as the sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) and is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise. The film stars Owen Teague in the lead role alongside Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy.