Updated with movie title War for the Planet of the Apes.
Apes versus Humans in the Fraser Valley? Remember when Planet of the Apes 3 film scouts checked out Chilliwack back country last April? Well, it’s official. The rebooted billion-dollar-plus Planet of the Apes franchise — starring motion-captured Andy Serkis as Caesar — returns to metro Vancouver this Fall to shoot its third installment, War for the Planet of the Apes, for four months. Production code: Hidden Fortress.
We first met Caesar as a genetically-enhanced baby chimp living in San Francisco with humans until he is captured and placed in a primate shelter where he leads an ape uprising in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Ten years later in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, talking chimpanzee Caesar has his own family and is the established leader of an Apes colony in a world where humanity has been virtually wiped out by a simian plague. An unexpected incursion by human survivors leads to civil war among the Apes with Caesar prevailing as King of Apes. War of the Planet of the Apes is set some time later during a “bloody war” between Apes and Humans with Caesar as an “Ape Moses” of mythic status in ape history. Director Matt Reeves is co-writing War of the Planet of the Apes along with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes writer Mark Bomback.
Production:
Apes 1
Evolution leads to Revolution. Rise of the Planet of the Apes co-starring James Franco filmed almost exclusively in metro Vancouver for four months in 2010 with motion-capture apes climbing the YWCA Health & Fitness Centre downtown and a massive motion-capture Apes vs Humans confrontation shot on a green screen Golden Gate Bridge set at Kent Hanger field.
Related: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Reshoots at Green Screen Golden Gates Bridge Set.
Apes 2
Revolutionary to King. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes co-starring Jason Clarke chose to shoot somewhere cheaper — Louisiana — in 2013 with only one out of four months’ worth of production done here in the forests of Golden Ears Park, Capilano Canyon and Vancouver Island.
Apes 3
Bloody war between apes and humans. War for the Planet of the Apes is scheduled to film for four months in metro Vancouver from October 14th to early March next year (dates subject to change) via the DGC-BC Production List.