Fox’s PLANET OF THE APES: RISE OF THE APES Announced For June 24, 2011 Release

20th Century Fox has confirmed a story we brought to you back in January on the prequel to PLANET OF THE APES. 

LOS ANGELES (May 6, 2010) __ Twentieth Century Fox has set a June 24, 2011 release for RISE OF THE APES, a completely new take on one of the Studio’s most beloved and successful franchises. Oscar®-winning visual effects house WETA Digital – employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for AVATAR – will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark will produce for Chernin Entertainment under its new pact with Fox. Acclaimed filmmaker Rupert Wyatt (“The Escapist”) is directing from a screenplay by Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa, who also are producing.

RISE OF THE APES (tentative title) is an origin story in the truest sense of the term. Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

Man-oh-man. One of my favorite films and franchises of all time and no actors in the suits this go around? I’m totally on the fence about this one. Extremely intrigued on one hand to see what a CGI ape looks like. And on the other, mortified by the mere thought that no person will bring to life the apes. Roddy McDowall and all the other actors are what make the original movies and, yes, even Tim Burton’s remake so appealing and endearing. I’d say, 20th Century Fox will be busy studio over the next year…..they recently announced that the next film in the X-Men series, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, will be in theaters on June 3, 2011 and now RISE OF THE APES on June 24, 2011.

Source: Deadline.com