DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES New Featurettes And Listen To Michael Giacchino’s Soundtrack

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE GODFATHER 2, ALIENS, THE DARK KNIGHT. Filmgoers can add a new title to the list of great sequels with director Matt Reeves’ DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Starring Andy Serkis as “Caesar,” the movie opens later tonight at theaters nationwide and the highly-anticipated sequel already represents more than 70% of Fandango’s weekend ticket sales.

According to a Fandango survey of more than 1,000 “Apes” ticket-buyers, 81% of them are Serkis fans and 74% contend that the APES and HOBBIT star should be considered for an Oscar for his motion capture performances.

Here’s a look at the latest featurettes with Reeves and stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke and Keri Russell on the escalating showdown between genetically evolved apes and humans.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES concluded with the apes breaking free from their human captors – just as a deadly human-created virus spread globally. Caesar, the benevolent ape leader, leads the apes to Muir Woods, a haven outside of San Francisco, where Caesar, then a young chimpanzee, was taken by his human friend Will to escape the confines of the city.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES director Matt Reeves wanted the continuity of his movie to fit into that timeline. “The story we are telling will lead to Planet of the Apes, and not Planet of the Humans and Apes, so it’s about how this film fits into that narrative.”

In the new story, the apes have continued to build a community in Muir Woods. Beyond the apes’ enclave, a pandemic, the Simian Flu, has wiped out much of the world’s human population. Gradually the lights of civilization began to dim and become non-existent. For all intents and purposes, humanity has perished.

A viral apocalypse hit the humans and 10 years later, their numbers are severely depleted. Apes, on the other hand, have done quite well. Caesar has led them to freedom and he’s built a new home. The apes have risen, and the humans have declined. And now they’re about to collide.

A formidable antagonist for the humans is Koba, played by Toby Kebbell. In this featurette, the actor discusses a new clip from the film.

The milky-eyed and scar-faced bonobo, introduced in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Koba spent much of his younger life confined in laboratories, where he was subjected to experimentation in the name of science.

In the decade following the apes’ liberation, Koba has evolved into a grizzled warrior who harbors a strong hatred of the human race, believing that the only good human is a dead human.

Prior to DAWN’s release, Sony Masterworks has released the film’s soundtrack by Michael Giacchino.

The Oscar-winning composer’s very subtle and beautiful score boosts Michael Seresin’s photography and Joe Letteri’s visual effects. This is the second time that Reeves and Giacchino have collaborated following the romantic horror film Let Me In (2010). The soundtrack is available digitally now and on CD on July 29.

Michael Giacchino and Matt Reeves on Percussion from Maria Giacchino on Vimeo.

Michael Giacchino’s stated preference is for clear melodies and themes which he likes to combine with touches of atonality, while respecting previous compositions and reacting to the content of the movie. “I knew immediately that I wanted to acknowledge the experimental musical style which my hero Jerry Goldsmith chose for the original film by finding my own interesting sounds. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an extremely moving story about tolerance and how we deal with each other as a society … I knew we would have to treat that subtext with great respect and dignity. I hope that I have done so while also honoring Jerry’s original sound.”

Track 3 “The Great Ape Processional” and Track #17 “Primates For Life” are especially robust and emotionally moving, while Track #6 “Monkey To The City contains flourishes of Jerry Goldsmith’s score from the original 1968 PLANET OF THE APES.

Log onto Spotify to listen.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES explores how the apes evolved from the mostly mute but intelligent animals of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, into articulate, civilized beings that emerge as Earth’s dominant species within the canon of the PLANET OF THE APES franchise.

Reeves explains: “In RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES the apes said only a few words. With this film we show the apes at the dawn of their society, and learning to truly speak. Inevitably, the younger generation will be better with language than their parents, which leads to a very complicated portrait of the apes’ cultural order. This is the ape society that eventually evolves into what we see in the 1968 PLANET OF THE APES with an organized government, military and science.”

The film’s screenplay is by Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver.

The film stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Enrique Murciano, Kirk Acevedo, Karin Konoval, and Judy Greer.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES HITS THEATERS ON JULY 11TH.

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