Jul 10 2014

The Dawn of The Planet of The Apes is here and we were fortunate enough to get an inside look at how the movie was made. Enjoy.

1. $120,000 million budget

The movie cost $120 million to produce and created over 15,000 jobs. Huge budget, but check out the trailer. Totally worth it.

2. Same team as Lord Of The Rings

The special effects team was led by Dan Lemmon and Joe Letteri of Weta Digital – the same team that did Lord of The Rings, Avatar, and many more. Their showreel is sure to impress, have a look below:

3. Not hair & makeup...

This has to be the coolest part about the movie. You would think that all of the Apes were created using a vast amount of make up, but it's surprising to see that it's all special effects. The video below is a side by side of the actors and their ape counterparts.

This is how they used to do it:

4. Filmed in San Francisco?

The movie was set in San Francisco but only 4 days of shooting took place there. Most of the movie was shot in New Orleans and the majority of the nature scenes were shot in Vancouver, Canada.

5. Unisex roles

Maurice the male Orangutan is actually played by a female actress. You might recognize Karin Konoval from the X-Files but you would've never guessed that she plays Maurice in Planet of the Apes. We were given the opportunity to speak with her about the role and she said that a large part of her inspiration was based on Towan, an orangutan who paints and lives at the Woodlands Zoo in Seattle. Here's a short clip of this incredible creature hard at work:

We hope you found this post interesting. As an extra, 20th Century Fox has provided us with the free wallpaper below which you can download and use as a desktop background.

Special thanks to the team at Zoomwerks for giving us an insiders look at the movie.

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