Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom was filmed almost entirely on location

“We were outside filming with real actors.”

In an industry that increasingly uses technology and particularly CGI, the director of the saga The Labyinth and the next opus of The Planet of the Apes, Wes Ballgoes against the grain.

On the occasion of the Wondercon organized in California on the weekend of March 29 to 31, 2024, the filmmaker was present for the Directors on Directing panel (editor's note: Directors talk about directing) during which a journalist from the American media Colliderasked him a few questions about his next film The New Kingdom.

He reveals quite surprisingly that the vast majority of the filming took place outdoors.

“We probably only had one blue background for the whole movie. The vast majority of us were outside filming on location with real actors. They would sometimes have these funny dots and this damn camera in their face, which they would eventually forget about. But basically we did everything like a live-action.”

The risk, the director continues, is that all the pieces have to come together at the end because there is no going back. His goal ? Capture as much authenticity as possible of the settings and the interaction of the actors in order to recreate sincere emotions. We can also imagine that for actors, finding themselves filming completely in a studio can be confusing.

Planet of the Apes 2024 was, however, designed with a lot of CGI, like the previous trilogy led by Andy Serkis, moreover. Wes Ball himself admits, it was impossible to completely do without technology. It's also hard to imagine an army of real monkeys carrying guns. It is therefore towards the balance between live-action and CGI galore that the director leans. All in all, there are only 30 to 40 minutes of full CGI, Ball confirms:

“At the end of the day, some of the footage is 100% CGI, there's about 30 to 40 minutes of full digital VFX, and I don't think people will be able to realize that. There are a few scenes that you wouldn't guess were special effects, because that's how it was supposed to be done. But it all started with a real camera, a real world and real physical actions.“

Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom takes place 300 years after the rise of Caesar – the chimpanzee hero of the later films. The apes took power and Men returned to the wild, forced to hide to survive. Among them is Nova (Freya Allan), a young woman hunted by the tyrannical primate leader Proximus (Kevin Durand). To challenge his authority, Noa (Owen Teague), an intrepid chimpanzee, discovers the world of yesteryear where humans were superior to apes.

The trailers released earlier in the year revealed some beautiful images promising a great spectacle. This fourth opus will be released in France on May 8, 2024.

William H. Macy talks about his role as a human in Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom