War for the Planet of the Apes: how breathtaking visual effects were achieved
From minutely studying how digital fur behaves in snow to pinpoint modelling of how cameras respond to light, Weta Digital team has taken visual effects to a new level so that viewers will believe they are watching real-live apes
As Caesar sits astride a horse rallying his legions to battle, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching a Roman-era war epic – except that the protagonist is a chimpanzee. War for the Planet of the Apes, the third instalment of the rebooted simian sci-fi franchise, opens this week to reviews lauding some of the most breathtaking visual effects ever seen in cinema.
Behind the photo-real apes is Weta Digital, a pioneering CGI studio based in Wellington, New Zealand, and founded by Peter Jackson that has seen its reputation grow steadily since its groundbreaking performance-capture work on his The Lord of the Rings movies.
Filmed against the stark snowy vistas of Alberta and British Columbia, War for the Planet of the Apes sees director Matt Reeves unleash the rapidly evolving simians into a world boiling over with divisions and rage. A band of soldiers led by a battle-hardened loose cannon – Woody Harrelson channelling Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz – launches an attack to destroy the apes once and for all.
The movie is driven by Andy Serkis as the majestic Caesar, reprising a role for which he has drawn even more acclaim than for his other digital characters, Gollum in Rings and King Kong.
“Physically in this film, Caesar is much more upright and he uses his hands a lot more now, so he’s more like a human being in ape skin,” Serkis says in the production notes. “But as his intelligence and abilities have grown, the things he feels and remembers have become more daunting to him.”
