'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' Begins Filming

It’s been 5 years since the last Planet of the Apes film hit theaters. However, production on the long-awaited next installment has finally begun today in Australia. More specifically, filming is taking place in Sydney, New South Wales.

Thanks to the location’s ‘Made in NSW’ fund, the production will receive an incentivized sum of approximately $10 million USD. While that money will most likely be used to offset some unforeseen costs, the production will also benefit Australians by creating 400 new local jobs and injecting a projected $80 million USD into the Australian economy.

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Described as the saga in the franchise, it will reportedly pick up many years after War for the Planet of the Apes.

The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (Terminator: Dark Fate), Rick Jaffa (Rise/Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Patrick Aison (Wayward Pines). Wes Ball (The Maze Runner trilogy) is directing under the 20th Century Studios banner at Disney.

Owen Teague (It), Freya Allan (The Witcher), Peter Macon (The Orville), Eka Darville (Jessica Jones), and Kevin Durand (The Strand) are all set to star. Teague is playing the lead ape, while Allan will play the human lead. Who Durand, Darville, and Macon are playing is being kept under wraps.

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According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, the film’s story is actually expected place “generations” after the death of the last trilogy’s protagonist Caesar.

This is what the apes consider to be their “Bronze Age”. Humans, while rarely seen, are mostly feral and considered equivalent to pests, and multiple subcultures are developing within the society the apes have established for themselves. Now, also according to Richtman, the film will follow several different plot lines and characters that are somewhat related, eventually becoming entwined by the end.

One of the main ape characters in the film will be named Proximus Caesar. While it’s unclear if he’s directly related to the original Caesar, he is one of the civilization’s most powerful leaders. He believes that the key to the apes’ future is past technology used by human beings, buried somewhere beneath the Earth. He enlists the help of several apes, known as “marauders”, including one by the name of Sylva to travel beneath the surface.

Shortly after Proximus and Sylva begin their exploration, they cross paths with one ape village and incidentally destroy it. In the ashes, a young local ape named Noa rises and decides to try and stop Proximus. He teams up with a mysterious human woman named Raka, who may or may not have her own motives.

SOURCES: Deadline, Daniel RPK