The Making of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’

Rise of the Planet of the Apes senior visual-effects supervisor Joe Letteri, a four-time Oscar winner, credits director Rupert Wyatt for championing the notion of a reality-based story and effects. Letteri explains, “Rupert has instilled the overall idea in all of us that we are bringing realistic-looking chimps into the mix. So we started at ground zero. It’s a fresh new approach to the Planet of the Apes film series. We’re presenting primates as we know them. We’re giving them an additional level of intelligence and subtle human tendencies.” As Weta Digital utilized its state-of-the-art tools to render photo-realistic apes, the world’s foremost performance-capture artist, actor Andy Serkis, came aboard the project to infuse Caesar with nuance, emotion, soul, wisdom, and heart. Another historic accomplishment for the picture was its filming of visual effects and performance-capture work on practical locations outside the controlled environment of an enclosed stage. This allowed the performance-capture work to be fully integrated with the live-action performances, eliminating the barrier between visual effects and live action.