‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ trailer rules during the Super Bowl
You can’t keep a good ape down.
While 2017’s “War of the Planet of the Apes” was a fitting conclusion to the latest trilogy in the (second) rebooted “Planet of the Apes” franchise, more monkey business is headed our way. The first full trailer for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” dropped during the Super Bowl on Sunday, and showed that the battle on the gridiron was no match for a big Hollywood spectacle.
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The new film, out on May 10, is directed by Wes Ball (“The Maze Runner”) and stars motion-capture ape renderings performed by Owen Teague (Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s son in “You Hurt My Feelings”), Kevin Durand, and William H. Macy. The part of the doe-eyed human female (wearing the requisite rags) is played by “The Witcher” star Freya Allan.
The new film is set 300 years after the last one, where apes have ascended to supremacy and humans have gone feral—but an Enlightenment of sorts has sparked among some apes who have begun questioning their leaders and who would like to make peace between the two species. Naturally, anything that upsets the balance of power like this is going to cause some trouble.
In a way, this gets the timeline back to around where the first Charlton Heston-starring movie was set, which would not be the first time the “Apes” franchise has done a loop-de-loop and caught up with itself. (You can Google “Planet of the Apes” + “timeline flowchart” if you have an afternoon to spare.)
While on the Oscar campaign trail this year, “The Holdovers”’ Paul Giamatti has spoken with great enthusiasm about his time wearing an ape suit in Tim Burton’s remake version from 2001.
The wildly popular series began its life as a novel by French author Pierre Boulle, whose most notable other work was penning “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” based somewhat on the author’s own wartime experiences. That film, of course, was a Best Picture Oscar-winner and also won Sir David Lean Best Director, Sir Alec Guinness Best Actor, and trophies for cinematography, adapted screenplay, editing, and score.
Despite its eventual turn into cheapo 1970s television and cartoons for the lunchbox-and-Thermos set, The “Apes” franchise has not been totally removed from the Awards limelight. The 1968 original was nominated for Jerry Goldsmith’s original score and Morton Haack’s costume work. Two of the recent films, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” were nominated for Best Visual Effects.
A look at the new trailer suggests there might be another nomination in the same category next year.
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