Rise of the Planet of the Apes tore up the box office last weekend, earning $54 million a surprising showing for the seventh film in a series thats over 40 years old. EW caught up with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the married screenwriters who crafted the primate preboot, to talk about the exciting difficulty of writing a character who never speaks and their vague-but-intriguing ideas for a Rise sequel or rather, sequels
including the slight implication that Taylor, the character Charlton Heston played in the original Apes, might be making a return journey.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
Its interesting that the character audiences are most responding to in the film is Caesar, the rebel chimpanzee played by Andy Serkis. Was it difficult to write a character who doesnt have any dialogue?
RICK JAFFA:
That was our challenge. AMANDA SILVER:
It put extra pressure on us, in a good way, to tell a story visually without dialogue. I think thinking back on my film school days! thats what you look for. Yes, Paddy Chayefsky has great dialogue, and you aspire to do that as well. But film is a visual medium, and what can you show and not tell? Caesar was the genesis of the story. Rick came up with the idea for this when he was looking through his idea file. Hed cut out some articles about chimpanzees raised in homes, and he thought, My god, this would make a great reboot for Planet of the Apes. We kind of fell in love with Caesar. We didnt think of him specifically as a chimpanzee. We thought of him as a full character. Because he didnt have dialogue, it put extra pressure on us in a good way to tell a story visually without the dialogue.
RJ:
We did a lot of research, and a lot of reading online, about some very specific primates who have become somewhat well-known. Theres that great documentary out right now, Project Nim; we read about him. Theres another one, Kanzi, who was
AS:
He was a gorilla, right?
RJ:
No, I believe he was a .
Amanda and Rick in unison:
A bonobo!
The film bears a slight similarity to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in Apes series. Did you use that film as a signpost for Rise?
RJ:
Not in the beginning! We laid out the story and pitched the idea to Fox, and had gotten hired, and okayed to write and produce this thing. It was at that point we went back and started studying the old movies. We already had the movie laid out. I think some of the connections to Conquest are on purpose, but others are coincidental. Unlikely character becoming a leader and leading his people to freedom its also a Moses story.
If this is the Moses story a leader taking his people to freedom then do you see the potential sequel as a kind of Joshua story, with the Apes fighting wars and conquering the world?
AS:
Im touching wood, because Im superstitious! We definitely have ideas for where the sequel plural, where the sequels would take us. And those were kind of built into
RJ:
the construction of the narrative already. There hasnt been an official discussion yet about a sequel, because I think everyone still doesnt want to jinx where we are. But we definitely have ideas.
AS:
When we started this, we knew that this movie would stand on its own, and we designed it that way. But if it didnt stand on its own, we pictured a trilogy that would start with this movie.
Im definitely intrigued to see what happens to the Icarus mission, the spaceship that hovers around the background of the plot of Rise.
RJ:
We definitely have ideas about that! What better plant can you put in a script then, Oh my god, Taylors going up again!
One of my favorite parts of the Apes franchise is the pulpy grandiosity of the later titles: Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and now Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Whats your dream-title for a Rise sequel?
RJ:
Were gonna have to figure that one out. Thats a great question. We do have a good sense of what will be in the sequel. Maybe in 20 years, the last one will be called Success of the Planet of the Apes.
AS:
Its that B-movie flair, that excitement. We havent found the cheesy-but-fun noun that would fit the action that were seeing.
RJ:
Maybe Revenge.
I like that title. It's reminiscent of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, whose basic story elements sort of served as the basis for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
'Revenge' doesn't really make sense. They got their revenge on Dodge and the company already and seemed perfectly content in the woods. They'll have to be provoked into attacking again.
'Revenge' doesn't really make sense. They got their revenge on Dodge and the company already and seemed perfectly content in the woods. They'll have to be provoked into attacking again.
Star Apes - The Return Of The Apes On The Two Towers With The Fellowship Of The Apes On The Planet Where The Apes Rises & The Sorcerer's Ape Along With Apes In A Chamber Also With Azkaban Apes & Goblet Of The Apes With The Order Of The Apes & Half Blood Ape Alongside The Deathly Ape Where A Virus Kills Most Of The Humans & Harry Osbourne Dies Again At The End With The Rest Of Humanity Leaving Only The Apes Left
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