The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
director Wes Ball.
Ball discusses how he approached the timeline for his sequel, working with Wētā on the groundbreaking tech, and influences behind the movie’s massive world-building.
Ball also talks about the potential for continuing the story and his upcoming project,
The Legend of Zelda
.

Wes Ball (The Maze Runner), director of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will be the first to admit that helming the reboot for the Planet of the Apes franchise was a “really, really difficult movie to make.” The cinematic Apes saga has dominated the box office since the ‘60s, and into the 2010s with Caesar’s trilogy, and with so much history to contend with, Ball and writer Josh Friedman (Apple TV’s Foundation) had to find their way into the timeline that both honored the stories that came before and paved the way for a future.

In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, generations after the death of Caesar (Andy Serkis), one young ape’s journey of discovery is about to begin. Through our “guide,” a young ape called Noa, played by Owen Teague (2017’s It), we learn that everything Caesar fought for has become the foundation for what’s transpired since, whether revered or misinterpreted, and humans have since fallen into the shadows. Noa must reckon with everything he’s ever known as apes like Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) fight for control, and devout followers like Raka (Peter Macon) preach Caesar’s original values.

With Kingdom hitting theaters this week, our own Perri Nemiroff was able to sit down with Ball to pick his brain about where one even begins when approaching a franchise like this one. From concept art to casting, we get a peek behind the scenes of one of this year’s biggest blockbusters as Nemiroff and Ball discuss his approach to the storyline, the “whole new frontier” they explored with Wētā Workshop to bring this post-climate change world to life, and the future of the PoTA franchise.

We’re Entering the Bronze Age of the Apes
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a massive undertaking for the filmmaker’s fourth feature, considering what a feat it is to put a story onscreen that requires nearly 100% motion capture characters, otherworldly set pieces, and capturing the audience’s attention, both old fans and new. In addition, Kingdom bridges the gap between the Caesar Trilogy and Franklin Schaffner’s original 1968 movie where the big reveal was that Earth was, in fact, the planet of the apes and humans had become a sort of subspecies. Ball’s job then becomes, how did we get here? Having directed The Maze Runner trilogy, Ball is well-versed in dystopian societies, and told Nemiroff:

“I’ve been playing in this kind of setting for a long time now. Things like rising sea levels, which play a big part of the end of the movie, essentially, just the way time erodes and nature overgrows, that sense of the ‘68 movie, where time had washed away most evidence of the human’s existence — we got to kind of start that process in this one.”

Storywise, Ball looked to the stars — Star Wars, that is. What better way to kick off a brand-new adventure than to look to one of Hollywood’s most iconic franchises for inspiration? The filmmaker does clarify that the influence he took from George Lucas’ films was more to do with world-building and that tough balance between fantasy and realism. He tells Perri:

“I was thinking Star Wars in that way of, like, visiting these other worlds, other cultures, of kind of getting swept up in the whole fantasy of it all a little bit. We tried to keep it all grounded and realistic, but I thought it was a cool part of where we could go uniquely because we’re so far removed from the previous movies, in terms of the time. Yeah, it was cool. It was fun to hopefully immerse people in this fantasy world. It’s kind of haunting, too. It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful-looking, but it’s this haunting memory of what happened to the world and what we left behind.”

As for the apes themselves, factions have cropped up, like the Eagle Clan Noa is from, and Caesar’s legacy is a point of contention as time and word-of-mouth distort his original teachings. The further the apes get from War for the Planet of the Apes, Ball likens their evolution to that of humankind, saying, “We’ve discovered things or learned things, and then we’ve lost them to time.” What happened between War and Kingdom Ball dubs the Dark Age, telling Perri, “I always say, we’re entering the Bronze Age of the apes’ world.”

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Pushes the Boundaries of VFX

With humans largely out of the picture and nature reclaiming Earth, Kingdom requires CGI to do a lot of the heavy lifting visually. For this, Ball put his trust in the first-class talent of Wētā Workshop, whose Oscar-winning movie magic we’ve most recently experienced in films like Dune: Part Two, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. In particular, The Way of Water challenged what the VFX company could do in regard to water, but Ball says, “The amount of simulation data far exceeds anything they’ve done previously. It’s wild.” When asked what, specifically, it was that Wētā improved on, he explained:

“It’s all the water stuff. Every bit of water you see in the movie is all CG. We didn’t shoot anything. It’s pretty stunning stuff. It’s way more complicated this time because it’s not like waves in the sea. It’s crashing and interacting, wet fur, fur strands blowing, water flowing through the fur. It’s just
insane
. That stuff was the last stuff we delivered. It took a year and a couple of months to do.”

Zero real water. To put this into perspective, Ball tells Nemiroff a particularly watery bridge scene “was shot in a parking lot.” Since Cameron blew audiences away with Avatar in 2009 and what CGI could pull off, movies have leaned into VFX shots, garnering some pushback with conversations on CGI versus practical effects, and if certain studios are pushing too hard for too quick a turnaround. That isn’t the case for Ball, who not only puts his full trust in Wētā but admires what they do as what it is: art. He even tells Nemiroff it’s one of the reasons he’s most excited for audiences to go see Kingdom:

“I think it’s gonna be fun for people just to see the real artistry that’s involved here. There’s no button that makes this stuff happen. There’s no ‘make ape’ or ‘make whatever.’ It’s real, incredible storytelling and artistry that’s on display here. It’s an honor to be involved with such incredible people.”

He goes to say:

“Visual effects is a tool like anything else. Like the camera, the lights, or the microphones that we use. They’re just tools to tell a story. So, keep your eye on the story. And it’s not spectacle for spectacle’s sake. It has some honesty. In a weird way, we’re not very fancy. There are no fancy camera moves and that kind of stuff. I mean, we have some fun here and there, but it’s pretty restrained, and it’s grounded in that way, I guess. So hopefully,
hopefully
, people will buy it as something real that we did.”

Is ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ a New Trilogy?

This Bronze Age is only the beginning. With Kingdom hitting theaters, this continuation of the franchise quite literally opens new doors. When Nemiroff brought up the idea of more interpretations of Caesar’s creed, the way Proximus Caesar and Raka use it in the movie, Ball played coy, “Maybe,” he said of continuing this journey, “That’s the idea.” Certainly, he can’t say for sure we’ll be getting a sequel, but he did say Kingdom was “cheap,” despite its groundbreaking CGI tech and motion capture, adding, “We made it for less than people thought possible.” Like his movie, Ball ended on a high note, saying:

“The movie begins as Noa’s story, but it ends as Noa and Mae’s story, really. There’s literally a door that opens at the end of the movie that hopefully presents many, many possibilities for continued drama, conflict, and hopefully, an optimism, I guess, for the two species co-existing. If we’re lucky enough, and this thing works, we’ll make more.”

For even more on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, plus what Ball intends to take into his next film, The Legend of Zelda, check out Nemiroff’s full interview in the video at the top of this article.

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

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