Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Trailers, Discussion, Pics

Also it wouldn't have to be a complete remake. There will be no astronaut going to the future unknowingly. Unless he goes to the future instead of going back in time and stopping the virus.

 

^ Wasn't the Icarus mentioned in "Rise"?

 

yes.

 

Even with Easter Eggs like the Icarus, I don't think we should assume that the new movies are literally prequels to the earlier cycle of films, including the original 1968 film.

This is a reboot, with its own continuity and timeline, so they aren't obliged to have Taylor run into Dr. Zaius umpteen centuries from now.

 

I was pretty meh about Rise. It was a distinct improvement over Tim's effort, but neither touched the epic wow-factor of the original '68 version.

In fairness, that's a high bar that doesn't have to be met, in order for this new series to be successful.

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Planet of the Apes into Darkness?

Night of the Living Planet of the Apes?

 

Return of the Rise of the Dark Planet of the Apes of Steel... Into Darkness

 

A Planet of the Apes Christmas!

 

In many ways it would have to be different. One of the aspects of the original was Taylor (and the audience) not knowing he was really back home on Earth. Since they can't repeat that part of the story it does give them creative room to do something new.

 

Why can't they repeat it?

I mean, obviously none of us can know exactly what happens in Dawn, but I'm just guessing that there'll still be room for a full-out nuclear conflict (which is what happened in the original).

And even if it's not nuclear: There will be *some* kind of final conflict, we know that much. That's the whole point of all Apes films: to establish a world where apes rule and humans are slaves. We don't know how Dawn will get there, but it's pretty safe to assume it will. It'll do something to humans to make them unable to speak and act like anything other than animals. (I mean, come on, why else use the phrase "Planet of the APES"? ) And thus lead to a reboot of POTA.

 

I would love to see a POTA remake where the apes rule and humans are mutant slaves and cattle. I just don't think the plot element of the astronauts from the Icarus not knowing they have arrived back on earth would work. I don't want to rule it out but I think the film makers might want to add something new. Not sure what that would be though.

 

Judging by the trailer, the catastrophe has already occurred in the form of the viral pandemic that began in 'Rise'. Presumably a massive chunk of humanity is dead with only a handful of survivors who are presumably immune.

The only missing step between this and something akin to the state of affairs we saw in the original is humans devolving in intellect and loosing the power of speech.

For my money, a virus specifically designed to affect the human brain is a much more credible explanation than "they blew it all up." A Nuclear War as the cause was just a reflections of the fears of the time it was made, just as a global pandemic is for today. The difference is a pandemic makes more sense in context.

Has anyone actually read the original book? I haven't but from what I gather it's not Earth at all but one of those parallel Earth's 60's sci-fi authors were so fond of and the cause was just that the old human civilization had become so stagnant and decadent that their "ape slaves" revolted and exiled them into the wilderness. IIRC the twist is that by the time they get home, thanks to time dilation in the intervening centuries the same thing has happened here.

 

Good point. There's no point in remaking POTA since the twist ending has been common knowledge for over forty years now. And the new movies are already forging their own continuity--unless I missed the part where a spaceborne virus wiped out all the dogs and cats--and apes became a slave race in the 1990s!

 

Maybe that side effect will only kick in with the final scene?

 

Actually I'd be willing to bet it's going to be part of the main plot. Humans getting decreasingly intelligent and more volatile would be a good enough reason why the apes would need to assert dominance. I mean with a drastically depopulated planet it's not as if they have to co-exist with all the extra space and the apes aren't nearly as technologically dependent as the human survivors, so shouldn't have trouble surviving in the wilderness.

I think it's a safe bet that if this movie is successful, the studio will keep it going. Since 'Rise' and 'Dawn' seem to cover the same basic ground as 'Conquest' and 'Battle' respectively, the next logical step would be a POTA remake. The trick is doing it in a new and interesting way.

I suppose they could skip right past it and redo 'Escape' instead ('Beneath' hardly seems worth the bother) with future apes time travelling either back to before Caesar, or to a point after 'Dawn'...but that wouldn't be my first choice.

 

Or they can simply make up a new story following the events of Dawn. There's no rule that says they have to remake all of the earlier movies . . ..

 

At this point the two series are different enough I'd rather see them take things in a completely new direction.

 

And, really, Rise was only a "remake" of Conquest in the loosest sense. They're both about an ape uprising led by a super-evolved ape named Caesar, but that's about it. Rise had no time-travel angle, no enslaved ape servants, was set in the present instead of some fascist future dystopia, had completely different human characters, and, of course, the whole genetic-engineering business which was nowhere in Conquest.

And, most importantly, no Ricardo Montalban!

 

Oh sure they could do something totally original...but does that sound like something Hollywood is liable to do these days?

Seriously though, I'm not sure what else they could do after this before they start repeating themselves, which was also a problem with the original films. 'Rise' had the novelty of being set in modern day/near future with realistically portrayed apes. 'Dawn' seems--and I stress seems since we can only presume at this point--to be very much in the post-apocalyptic genre, with the last human remnants refusing to go down without a fight...where do they go from there without just making it a rehash of 'Dawn'?

Oh I totally agree. I was only talking in generalities as to which stories they may or may not choose to adapt. Indeed from the looks of it 'Dawn' is similarly only connected with 'Battle' in a very general way.

Likewise I'd expect any adaption of the original, or 'Escape' (assuming they even go that route) to be just as loosely based.

I'd actually like to see them do something a little closer to the original book with a more technologically advanced ape civilization, rather than what we got in the original and the Burton remake which felt less like a civilization and more like a single settlement of mutants squatting in the shadow of their creator's ruins.

And it was all the poorer for it I say!

 

looks like a third film has been announced.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/planet-of-the-apes-3-matt-reeves-director/

 

Sounds like Fox is very confident about the second film.