DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Officially Begins Production; Plot Synopsis + Full Cast Unveiled

20th Century Fox has sent out the following press release officially announcing the start of production for Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. It also confirms the sequel's full cast and reveals a new plot summary.

By PaulRom - May 08, 2013 10:05 AM EST

Filed Under: Sci-Fi

NEW ORLEANS — Twentieth Century Fox announced that principal photography is underway on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

Andy Serkis, celebrated for his performance in the last film, reprises his role as Caesar. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes also stars Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Public Enemies, The Great Gatsby), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, The Harry Potter film series), Keri Russell (The Americans, Mission Impossible III), Toby Kebbell (The Prince of Persia, Wrath of the Titans, Rock N Rolla), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, ParaNorman), Enrique Murciano (Traffic, Black Hawk Down), Kirk Acevedo (The Thin Red Line) and Judy Greer (The Descendants, Three Kings, 13 Going on 30).

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In). The producers are Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Oblivion), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes). Tom Hammel (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is executive producing.

Oscar®-winning visual effects house WETA Digital – employing a new generation of the cutting edge performance capture technologies developed for Rise of the Apes and Avatar – will again render photo-realistic, emotionally-engaging apes. The film’s key behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography Michael Seresin, production designer James Chinland, and VFX Supervisors Joe Letteri and Dan Lemmon, VFX producers Ryan Stafford, editor Bill Hoy and Stan Salfas, and costume designer Melissa Brunning.

Twentieth Century Fox will release Dawn of the Planet of the Apes worldwide on Memorial Day weekend, May 23, 2014. Rise of the Planet of the Apes opened theatrically during the summer of 2011, grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide.

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36 Comments

JoshBerger - 5/8/2013, 10:50 AM

James Franco should be in this.Oh well.

MrPiccolo - 5/8/2013, 10:52 AM

Absolutely loved the first one. Can't wait for this

Ocelot - 5/8/2013, 10:52 AM

I'm guessing the scarred ape we saw in the previous film will be the one causing the trouble in this film, they alluded to a potential rivalry between him and cesar

sephiroth211 - 5/8/2013, 10:54 AM

Screw these damn dirty apes... raccoon's are where it's at man.

sephiroth211 - 5/8/2013, 10:55 AM

Oh, and I know this is the wrong thread for it, but can I get some Rocket Raccoon news got dammit?!

RyGoR - 5/8/2013, 10:56 AM

Pretty excited for this movie! I was blown away by the awesomeness of the first one

And I don't even really like monkeys :)

JoshBerger - 5/8/2013, 11:00 AM

MrPiccolo - 5/8/2013, 11:04 AM

@joshfest absolutely love it.

Mysterion - 5/8/2013, 11:08 AM

naaa James Franco brings nothing to the table except that stupid stoner smile...the dude is easily replaceable. He did nothing special in the Rise of the planet...Andy Serkis/ Ceasar is what made that movie so good.

BlackPhillip - 5/8/2013, 11:42 AM

First one was awesome! Hopefully, this will be the same.

himynameisnik - 5/8/2013, 11:44 AM

loved the first down, thought it was absolutely brilliant. I hope this one can live up to it, i'd hoped James Franco would return but I'm definitely happy with Gary Oldman. Every character that guy has ever played I have loved and you see them all individually. I often forget he's both Sirius Black and James Gordon because they are so different and believable. That's why I personally hope with Star Wars they continue to tradition of british actors and should definitely include Gary Oldman.

DangerDuck83 - 5/8/2013, 11:49 AM

I'm glad Matt Reeves is directing this one! Love his work on Cloverfield and Let Me In!

JULEZ13 - 5/8/2013, 11:53 AM

SpectacularJoShFest : AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!! That's f*cking epic!

Anyway, I can't wait for this movie to come out! Obviously James Franco's character was affected by this disease. I wish they would've at least brought him back to show him dying and the impact it would have on Caesar but whatever. At least they have a good enough reason as to how they died.

This better be as good as the 1st one! It was a great surprise. Definitely movie of the year imo! This one better live up to it!

superotherside - 5/8/2013, 11:58 AM

Loved the first one, but I hope they don't have the virus have killed most humans cause then it won't have much of a war. Something I was looking forward to.

cole33 - 5/8/2013, 12:08 PM

Aw that's a terrible synopsis. The are starting off a DECADE after the virus kills off much of the population!? Weak!

Ten years of an awesome story just skipped over. They should start off only a year or so after the last film, with the virus just starting to hit the population and the panick and having humans declining toward our more "animalistic" side, in contrast to the Apes becoming more human-like in their intelligence and behavior, their ascension during our decent.

Their now just going to pass over all that good stuff, and go right to a war with the human survivors. booty

THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 5/8/2013, 12:10 PM

[frick] them for not putting in Franco. He [frick]ing raised Caesar and you are just going to take him out of the picture? No, just no.

SaxoWolf - 5/8/2013, 12:14 PM

great! loved the first one, bring it!

sephiroth211 - 5/8/2013, 12:19 PM

tea...is that real? If so...

FilmsFan - 5/8/2013, 12:30 PM

Did they just put this in the official press release... "ROTPOTA earned NEARLY HALF A BILLION US$ WORLDWIDE"!!

That's like saying; AVENGERS opened to 207 million US$ & then sayinh "Avengers opened at ONE - FIFTH of a BILLION US $"

Leave the BILLION ALONE!!

sephiroth211 - 5/8/2013, 12:36 PM

LMFAO Dio!!!

jlabatman - 5/8/2013, 12:37 PM

First one was good, so I'll be interested to see how this goes!

jlabatman - 5/8/2013, 12:37 PM

If Gusto is an indication of the future, nobody truly wins!

Batmanfan123gotham - 5/8/2013, 12:41 PM

My fourth most anticipated film of 2014 behind, Transcendence, Interstellar, Jurassic Park 4.

gaikinger - 5/8/2013, 12:48 PM

Franco raises the king of apes, creates the toxin that destroys mankind, and coincidentally has the immunity gene. that seems a little contrived to me.....Franco died.

JoeMomma29 - 5/8/2013, 1:08 PM

This is for Batz, Nomis, and Gusto!

marvel72 - 5/8/2013, 1:13 PM

@ Nomis

you can't talk about fight club,its the first rule.

sephiroth211 - 5/8/2013, 1:30 PM

Hey Gus look...it's Battle Goats dad!!

nach1wan - 5/8/2013, 2:06 PM

this might be good

PerfectAss - 5/8/2013, 5:21 PM

they better explain what happen'd to Will

JohnLamb - 5/8/2013, 10:07 PM

Loved the first one!

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Officially Begins Production; Plot Synopsis + Full Cast Unveiled

20th Century Fox has sent out the following press release officially announcing the start of production for Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. It also confirms the sequel's full cast and reveals a new plot summary.

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