First 20th Century Fox had scheduled the upcoming Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes (the above boring photo is all that we’ve seen so far — sorry!) for a June 24th release. That put the film in close competition with other sci-fi films like Super 8 and Green Lantern, which both open in June, and Transformers 3, which opens the following weekend. In January Fox pushed the release back to November 23rd, which probably didn’t help much because that will be a monster weekend for movies — Arthur Christmas, The Muppets, and Hugo Cabret all open on that same day. Perhaps because of that Fox announced today that Rise of the Apes will now be released on August 5, which is the weekend after the opening of the expected blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens and the same day as another sci-fi film, The Darkest Hour. However, August is definitely the lightest 2011 month for sci-fi films/gigantic blockbusters, so this is, all-in-all probably a good move by Fox.
I originally praised Fox for pushing back the initial release to give WETA more time to work on the special effects — of which we have yet to see any preview of , which worries me — so that extra five months has been reduced to two. As someone who would love to see the revitalization of the third big classic sci-fi franchise — Star Wars and Star Trek have both had their turns already! — I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a great film.
Rise of the Apes stars James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, and John Lithgow, and is directed by Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist). The script is by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (The Relic) with rewrites by Jamie Moss (X-Men: First Class).
What’s your expectations for Rise of the Apes? Good? Bad? Ugly as Dr. Zaius? Let us know below!
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