The Arena at WonderCon 2014 was packed with fans waiting to see the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On hand were director Matt Reeves, and stars Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, and Andy Serkis.
The cast charmed the audience, giving out a lot of information in a very short time. In addition to a trailer, a short scene from the movie was also premiered, giving the audience a little taste of the tension, and one moment of dark humor, they can expect to see in the film.
Reeves talked about his love of the series, going back to the very first Planet of the Apes movies, watching an 8mm reel of the movie until he wore out the sprocket holes. He said he was excited to continue the story of Caesar, and to tell a story not of villains, but of survival.
Reeves also mentioned taking the 3D and mocap (motion-capture) cameras out into the real world for filming, which isn’t always done. “We went into the rain and we took the cameras into conditions you should never take them into and if the people who rented us the cameras knew it they probably wouldn’t give them to us again.”
Russell, who plays CDC nurse Ellie, talked about humans coping in this post-apocalyptic environment, how they’ve changed from losing so much. “Just by their circumstances they must be incredibly resourceful people, and they’re all incredibly damaged at this point. I think they’re in these strange makeshift families, and I think they’ve gained some semblance of peace, and they don’t want to lose that. And they don’t want to lose those few loved ones they have with them.”
Oldman talked about his character, who’s lost almost everyone in his life. “I see Dreyfus as a heroic character. Obviously it’s affected him and changed him….these people have to be survivors, they’ve survived not only an epidemic, but the post-apocalyptic insanity that followed. You would have to be a survivor to have got this far.”
Serkis, who was an audience-favorite both for his role of Caesar and for Gollum from Lord of the Rings, talked about the hard road ahead for Caesar. “He is a family man, or ape. He then is forced into this incredibly difficult situation once the humans arrive, because there’s no absolutes, because he’s not a fundamentalist, because he is an empathetic creature, and because he remembers that there are people who are from another tribe, who are equally compassionate, who equally are struggling.”
At the end of the panel, an audience made a request of Serkis, as seen in the video below (Serkis agreed to the request, but with his own little spin to it.) Serkis then requested something of the audience, because “I’m taking over Instagram today.”
The audience was happy to play along.
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Photos taken by Hilary Papirio and Elizabeth Wallace