“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” films in April

March 19 2013

The Vancouver Island North Film Commission doesn’t monkey around.
In fact, starting in April, filming for the latest in the Planet of the Apes series will begin in the Campbell River area.
The movie, scheduled to be released in May 2014, is called Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Directed by Matt Reeves and starring Gary Oldman, Keri Russell and Jason Clarke, the movie is about a group of scientists in San Francisco who struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar - the lead ape - tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.
Some filming is also being done in New Orleans and San Francisco, but Joan Miller of the VINFC, says the lush vegetation of the temperate rain forest in and around Campbell River was perfect for some scenes in the movie.
Miller and the VINFC have been working on the preparations and site visits for months.
The original Planet of the Apes was a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Plan?te des Singes by Pierre Boulle. The film starred Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Kim Hunter and Linda Harrison.
The latest movie in the series was Rise of the Planet of the Apes directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, and Andy Serkis. Its premise is similar to the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), but it is not a direct remake in that it does not fit into that series’ continuity.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released on August 5, 2011, to critical and commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.