Imagine youre one of the bosses at 20th Century Fox.
So with the directors chair now absent, who do you give the project to?
The answer: Matt Reeves.
His concept is a sci-fi tragedy on an epic scale.
From a technical and storytelling perspective, its one of the best films of the year so far.
Heres what he had to say.
But this one really stuck in my head.
Oh, wow, thank you.
When I first came in, Rupert [Wyatt] had left.
I had a lot of trepidation; I thought, Whats going on here?
I mean, I was obsessed as a kid.
I had the dolls, I watched all the movies.
I said, when I read the outline, Well, this isnt the story Id do.
I thought that was going to be the end of the interview.
And I was, like, Oh.
It also wasnt Caesars story.
I said, This is not what I would do.
And to my surprise, they said, Well, what would you do?
They were just picking my brain, I thought.
By the end you realise that its Caesars movie.
People love that character.
I think you should start the movie on Caesar.
Id want to start in the ape world.
I feel thats the version of the movie Ive never seen the beginning of ape culture.
Hes like Don Corleone of the apes or something.
This is the one moment where it could have been Planet Of The Humans And The Apes.
But instead they said, That sounds great.
So I asked, Whats the catch?
I thought this was the most incredible opportunity.
Also, it had the potential to be a character drama.
So I jumped at it.
And what I liked about Rise was that it re-entered that world from an emotional perspective.
Its a weird reimagining of what it could have been the beginning of.
And that angle is Caesar, and being inside the emotional life of the apes.
So that, to me, was exciting.
And thats the drama when someone hears an ape speak for the first time.
And as I said before, [Fox] were proposing very articulate apes.
But for me, the deliciousness of Rise was watching them come into articulation.
And it reminded me of my son.
And when he was struggling to speak, I could see him fighting to articulate.
He became so much happier when he could speak, because he could express himself.
When we went back to Rise, we realised that all the people who saw Caesar speak are dead.
Then the guys who saw him speak in the habitation facility: they died.
We thought, Okay, thats good.
Thatll give us the opportunity to spring that on this human population, and then that will have resonance.
We wanted the humans to be taking in what were taking in.
To feel what were feeling when we watch the first 20 minutes of the movie.
How would you go and tell people that youd just had an encounter with a bunch of talking animals?
People would think you were out of your mind.
That conversation would not come to a satisfactory end.
He says, What are you talking about?
We need access to that van.
What if we said, I went into the studio today, and saw a bunch of talking poodles?
Youd say, Excuse me?
That conversation would go nowhere.
Youd say, No you didnt.
And Id say, Yes I did.
Then when one of them spoke, it would be a great dramatic unit.
I dont know if thats the question youre asking, but thats where it came from!
Its another tool you use to tell a story.
Its really getting there.
Andy Serkis has played many CG characters, and you marvel at them.
You go, Wow, thats a great character.
I did feel that way about Caesar inRise.
I thought that was amazing.
I wanted to push the photoreality further.
They shot 75 percent of that movie on a stage.
I want this to beApocalypse Nowwith apes.
I want to go into the woods.
I want to be in the wild.
What if we did actually go into the wild?
One of the big sparks for me was this one shot fromRise.
Why cant the whole movie be done in this way?
And Weta said, Youre right.
That theory is absolutely accurate.
We should put them in these realistic environments the key is finding out how to do that.
I do believe this is the new high watermark.
In the next movie, the effects are going to look even better.
And I was like, This is crazy.
With each movie, they push things further and further.
So it sounds to me as though the studio were really supportive over what you were doing.
But I wonder whether they balked at some of your ideas.
Its surprising, for one thing, to see subtitles in a summer film.
Id say this: there were debates.
The way youd imagine there would be for a studio heavily investing in a film.
I kept saying, Well, theres a movie calledAvatarthat had subtitles, and you guys made that.
And they said, Yeah, but thatsAvatar, so dont get too comfortable about that.
And I said, Im not saying wereAvatar, but I am saying it can be done.
Also, there was another movie calledRise, which had some riveting subtitled sequences.
I just kept saying, Guys, this is exciting.
You already did it, so its not that scary.
This is Caesars point of view.
This movie is his.
There were debates about that, but that was my pitch when I went in.
And I think this movie should declare that, and begin in the ape world rather than the human.
Which is why, when they accepted what I said, there was no way I couldnt say no.
I knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
This might be a difficult question to answer.
But while I was watchingDawn, I thought, Why cant more major films be more like this?
Why cant more stories make sense?
…it actually builds to a satisfying, understandable conclusion.
Which is actually quite rare in summer films.
That was why it was so irresistible.
I thought that was really ambitious, and really exciting.
The franchise lends itself to that.
That was definitely my intention on this, so I love that you say that.
Ive no idea why [more films arent like it].
Rise made this possible.
WithRise, nobody even expected it to be a hit, and then it was.
And so when these movies end up being successful, it creates the opportunity to make more.
That was what was exciting for me aboutThe Dark Knight.It wasnt just successful, it was crazy successful.
It took all these elements that were on the surface really commercial, but there were ideas behind them.
Hopefully that means more people will be interested in doing it.
And I think people do make a run at do it its just so hard to get right.
Matt Reeves, thank you very much.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apesis out on the 17th July.
