Rise of the Apes - Tom Felton’s first big budget film post-Potter

{FILM SPOTTING}

Rise of the Apes (USA, 2011)

Release Date (Poland): unknown, but summer 2011 sounds like a likely bet
Release Date (worldwide): 24th June 2011
Runtime: unknown
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: James Franco, Tom Felton, Brian Cox, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis
Production House: Chernin Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Plot: (from imdb)

An origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

Trailer
No video available yet. They’re not even in post-production.

Excitement levels: +3 (Very excited!)

General Feelings
I have a lot of scepticism about this film, but it doesn’t stop me from being very excited also ;) It has a somewhat unusual cast, which could mean a lot of things. Maybe they didn’t have the money to get bigger names and so they got smaller names with faithful fan bases. Or (and this is what I’m hoping for *grin*), it’s actually an interesting script and the cast was chosen for their acting abilities (all of these names have gotten some very good reviews for past roles).
Another film in the Planet of the Apes series seems like a rather lame idea, but as much as I was disappointed with Tim Burton’s remake, I love the original novel by Pierre Boulle (which IMO is much better than any of the films so far, although I have a soft spot for the original 60s Charlton Heston movie). A prequel means a lot less talking apes, which I find more digestible (the ape costumes always look a bit silly IMO). Plus, they’re not using ape costumes, but CGI this time, which I think is kind of interesting. All in all, depending on how they play it out, it certainly could be good.
One of the reasons the novel resonates with me so strongly is that there’s such a strong element of human pride and arrogance in it. It’s humiliating for the human race to come back to Earth in the future and find that humans are now slaves to apes. But at the same time there’s an odd sort of justice in it as well. So for me that premise has always pressed strong emotional buttons. The films usually shied away from that aspect of it with the exception of the first 1960s one (although IMO it didn’t go as far as the book). I don’t know if this one’s going to, but it might :) Perhaps it’s wishful thinking on my part, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Quite apart from this, I’m obviously very excited to see Tom Felton do something big budget post-Potter (he’s actually the only of the young Potter actors to be attached to a Hollywood project at this point in time). Sounds like this is going to be a small part and apparently, he’s playing somebody pretty nasty and convinced of his own superiority again. Not that I mind seeing him doing more villain roles *grin* It’s just that this one doesn’t sound too far from Draco in essentials, but we shall see. If it is a different kind of villain then it could be very interesting :) And I suppose it’ll be a bit different anyway cause I imagine he’s going to have an American accent.
Last, but not least, I’m really looking forward to seeing Freida Pinto. Haven’t seen her since Slumdog and she seems to be choosing some pretty interesting sounding projects, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can use her as quality assurance that this film’s plot is good *grin*

Edited To Add: Amazingly enough, I’ve found a Polish release date and it’s the same as the worldwide one. I guess this really is a proper blockbuster then!

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