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If, like me, you were a fan of the WB’s Felicity then it’s very amusing to ponder the fact that the co-creator of that series, Matt Reeves, and the show’s star, Keri Russell are teaming up again on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which Reeves directed. While Russell has worked with Felicity’s other creator — a guy named J.J. Abrams — since Felicity ended (in Mission: Impossible III), Apes marks her first time reuniting with Reeves.

As Russell remarked to me about the experience, “This is not the project I thought we’d be doing together, let’s be honest. He has this most beautiful film, this independent film, that he wrote that I would love to do, and we tried to get money for it a few years ago. It’s so good, and maybe, hopefully soon. But this is not that. [Laughs] This is so crazy and ambitious and epic. I had no idea what I was signing on for. He had a phone conversation with me and just said, ‘Please come do this.’ I said, ‘Matt, I’m finishing this show [The Americans], I’m so tired.’ He said, ‘Just come do this with me,’ and I’m so glad I did.” Continue reading Keri Russell on Dawn of the Planet of Apes’ Unlikely Felicity Reunion

Dawn opens ten years after the devastating Simian flu pandemic has decimated the human race, and the City by the Bay looks very different than moviegoers may remember from Rise. “I was very interested in telling the story from the apes’ point of view,” said Reeves, “To start the movie not in the post-apocalyptic world [of man], but instead in a world where it seemed it had been inherited by the new species of intelligent apes.” A rust-ravaged Golden Gate Bridge serves as a set of monkey bars for the apes to travel between their home in the Marin headlands to the now-desolate city of San Francisco. “The idea is that the earth would sort of start to reclaim this place,” said Reeves. “We tried to do it in as naturalistic a fashion as possible … what would happen here without humanity?”

Keri Russell, who plays the wife of Malcolm (Clarke) in the film, praised Serkis’ performance as Caesar, the genetically-enhanced ape. “Andy is just so good. That was really the treat of doing this movie. I really hope people start paying attention to him. He’s unbelievable.”

After the screening, the cast and crowd were ushered into the rotunda of the Palace of the Fine Arts, which had been transformed into a post-Simian Flu, apocalyptic afterparty. Dramatic up-lighting and overgrown branches shrouded the venue in deep shadows as floor-to-ceiling triptychs featuring Caesar’s iconic visage glowered over all. The dimly lit arena made distinguishing between guests almost impossible, keeping with the film’s message of the evening that, truly, we are all alike.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 11.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com