“Planet of the Apes” junkies look out: the origin story reboot “Rise of the Apes” is now being called “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. The movie also plans to open August 5.

The film, starring James Franco, Frieda Pinto, Tom Felton, Brian Cox, David Oyelowo, and Andy Serkis as Caesar, is a retelling of the origins of the planet of apes;l in this film, Caesar is a genetically-enhanced ape due to scientific testing of the speech centers of apes’ brains. When he develops speech, he then decides to free his fellow apes and create a world in which they rule. This origin, while keeping with the space-age times we live in, will be the third origin story for the franchise, which is already complicated enough:

In the original “Planet of the Apes”, it is alluded that the humans ruined themselves through nuclear warfare, allowing for apes to take control. This is confirmed in the second film, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”. However, in the third film, “Escape from the Planet of the Apes,” Cornelius and Zira, the main ape characters from the first two films, go back in time to the “present day”–1971. The fourth film, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”, shows Zira and Cornelius’ son, Caesar, who frees his ape brethren from captivity in 1994 (considered “the future”) and conquers humans in a revolt, creating the second origin of the Planet of the Apes.

However, unlike the vintage film series and even the recent Tim Burton “Apes” movie, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” will have realistically-rendered apes instead of actors in ape suits, thanks to Weta Digital, who did work on “Avatar”.

Are you interested to see how this film will play out? Are you already starting to compare Roddy McDowall’s Caesar to Andy Serkis’ Caesar? Sound off below.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rise of the Planet of the Apes

By Monique Jones

Monique Jones blogs about race and culture in entertainment, particularly movies and television. You can read her articles at Racialicious, and her new site, COLOR . You can also listen to her new podcast, What would Monique Say.

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