Gary Oldman Spills More Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Plot Details
READ WITH CAUTION. MINOR SPOILERS FOR DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES BELOW!
The second installment in the rebooted Planet of the Apes film series is one of our most anticipated movies of the year. With new director Matt Reeves at the helm, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should expand and deepen what director Rupert Wyatt had built with the first film. Although the titular apes are the film’s main attraction, the human cast should provide some narrative strings that will directly tie into the original Planet of the Apes movie from 1968, or at least that’s the plan.
In an interview with MTV, Gary Oldman, while promoting the new RoboCop remake, spilled some more details about the Planet of the Apes sequel. The 55-year-old British actor revealed how the humans come into contact with the apes after 10 years of civil war. Oldman’s character is Dreyfus and it seems that he’s a leader among the humans. Oldman said:
“He’s the sort of designated leader if you will of this community of those that were lucky enough to survive the simian flu, the disease, and then the ensuing social uprising from it… And they need power and there’s a power station and some of my people go out to see if it’s operational, if it’s still out there, and then they discover that there’s a whole community of apes living there. We believed they were all completely fire-bombed and wiped out…
Dawn takes place 10 years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in the year 2026. The Simian Flu virus has wiped out a majority of the human population, while the apes continue to evolve rapidly. If we look at the film’s official website, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco becomes the new dividing line between the city where the humans dwell and the Muir Forest where the apes thrive. The film’s structure will feature two storylines: one that will follow a small group of human survivalists trying to find a cure, and the other focuses on Caesar’s dominance over the apes.
Oldman also talked about the direction Matt Reeves wants to take the series before the third film leads into the original Planet of the Apes movie.
Matt Reeves was more interested in not just keeping the franchise alive but he wanted to make it more of a human story, he wanted to explore what had happened and keep it more focused to the human side of it before the story becomes the Planet of the Apes as we know it from the first one, from the original.
With only five months until the film is released, it seems that Matt Reeves will have to go back into production soon after Dawn hits theaters so he can prep the third movie. Perhaps we might meet American astronaut George Taylor, played in the original by Charlton Heston, in the third film?
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will star Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Thurston, Toby Kebbell, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, and Andy Serkis as Caesar. Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield) and screenwriter Mark Bomback (The Wolverine) rewrote Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver’s script. Jaffa and Silver also wrote Rise‘s original screenplay.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters everywhere on July 11, 2014, in 3D.
