WETA Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Letteri visits Sydney with new footage from 20th Century Fox’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
The recent presentation of about 15 minutes of footage from Rise of the Planet of the Apes – the reboot/sequel/prequel to the renowned and by now geriatric franchise – is an instance of a studio knowing when they’re onto a good thing and flaunting it. Let’s get straight to the point: the footage screened was stunning, and for two reasons. One, the special effects are groundbreaking. This is from WETA Digital, the Kiwi wizards behind such CGI behemoths as Lord of the Rings, King Kong and Avatar. Their latest offspring in the Gollum-Kong lineage is Caesar, an ape who is the unfortunate subject of an experimental cure for Alzheimer’s. James Franco’s Dr. Will Rodman bonds with the ape, and it turns out his serum may have unexpected, intelligence-enhancing side-effects.
Caesar is an entirely CGI entity on screen, with a performance supplied by veteran mo-capper Andy Serkis (also of Gollum + Kong). The technology is so sophisticated that the closed-to-finished render of Caesar looks virtually photo-realistic. I was trying very hard to pick holes in the CGI effects – something the online community was gleefully happy to do themselves when the early trailers premiered – but with these virtually finished versions they’re almost flawless. There is something intangibly CGI about it, but it’s so minute that, if you’re involved in the story, you’ll barely give it another thought.
Which brings us to the second reason I’m excited about Rise. The footage, which was presented by WETA Visual Effects supervisor Joe Letteri, focused on the real story elements, and the evolution of Caesar, rather than more action heavy portions touted in the trailer. Some of what we saw could definitely be considered spoiler material – so I’ll keep this vague – but essentially the film looks much more character driven that one might have expected, and the relationship between Caesar and Franco, thanks to the brilliant CGI, looks powerful. Also a surprise is that John Lithgow is in the film (though he was also featured in the earlier trailers) as Rodman/Franco’s Alzhemier’s-riddled father.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Rupert Wyatt seems to be making a film that will live up to the legacy of the first, classic film, given that his first film was the flawed but interesting The Escapist. Apparently Andy Serkis and Wyatt are re-teaming for a mo-cap adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and on the basis of the footage shown here, it seems the technology has reached a point where such a film could viably be made photo-realistic. What that means for mo-capped, CGI-humans is an all together story. Steven Spielberg’s Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, stylized though it is, might be the next piece in that ever-evolving uncanny-valley puzzle of CGI animation.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes will be released nationally August 4.
