This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
The Big Picture
- Director Wes Ball is excited to release special features for fans of
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
, including raw dailies and a commentary track with the VFX supervisor. - Fans will be able to dive into the world of
Apes
and see how CGI characters interact with live-action actors in this VFX wonderland. -
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
hits theaters on May 10.
With retail outlets scaling back physical releases of films, it is heartening to see a director so excited about working on Blu-ray special features. Wes Ball, director of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes opened up to YouTube’s Ape Nation about his imminent picture. Special features have also not been a focus in physical releases as they had been a decade ago. Instead of feature-length commentaries, it is more common to see short featurettes and brief supplementary content. Planet of the Apes fans, however, have more to look forward to. Ball said:
“I’m doing a little thing for the DVD where you can watch the movie — the entire movie — with the raw dailies. I’m working on that, where you’ll be able to watch and see the final [cut] and the raw dailies. You can see how close they get, what they do, and how they stitch everything together. It’s amazing, and you can just sit there and enjoy it.”
This content is for die-hard fans of the films who are interested in the nitty-gritty of how it was made. It will also be a point of interest for fans who want to see the differences between the actors who motion-capped the different ape characters and the final product. Most of the characters in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes are the titular species, with only a few human characters featured in the teaser not requiring this technology.
‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Is a VFX Wonderland
Ball added that he has recorded a commentary with visual effects supervisor, Erik Winquist, to overlay the dailies that will give further context to these images.
“Some of the hardest stuff in VFX is how you get the CG characters to interact with others. So we have a human girl hugging a CG ape, and it’s like, ‘How do you do that?’ It’s amazing stuff.” While heavy-duty special features like these are few and far between, this will be a treat for fans of the franchise as well as movie buffs. This type of content could be the very thing to encourage viewers to add Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to their home collection.
If there is one film to delve into the machinations of special effects, it’s this one. The Maze Runner director worked early in his career in visual effects, and his excitement about releasing an inside look at the world of the apes is palpable. The director later restrained himself from revealing too much about the upcoming release, so there may be more features to come. In the meantime, viewers should catch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes when it premieres in theaters, on May 10, 2024.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
- Release Date
- May 10, 2024
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
