Rise of the Apes

Fox has confirmed the Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes, which will be released on June 24, 2011 and directed by Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) from a screenplay by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa who are also producing with Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark’s Chernin Entertainment.

Rise of the Apes is reported as a “tentative title” and is described as an origin story in the truest sense of the term. Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Oscar-winning VFX House WETA Digital (Avatar) has been brought aboard to render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

Rise of the Apes will open the same weekend as Disney and Pixar’s Cars 2 and one week after Warner Brothers’s Green Lantern with Transformers 3 coming a week later on July 1.