‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ Begins Filming

Director Matt Reeves has officially begun filming War for the Planet of the Apes, as evidenced by a new photo from the set which features a scene that may be familiar to fans of the long-running franchise. In addition, Reeves has revealed that he’s shooting the film in 65mm, and although only a few cast members have been announced, we’re sure to hear more about the next installment very soon.

Reeves took to Twitter to share this beautiful photo from the set of War for the Planet of the Apes. In it, you can see someone in a mo-cap costume interacting with another person atop a horse on a beach:

That scene is evocative of the beach scene from the original 1968 film, of course, in which Charlton Heston comes upon the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the sand, suddenly realizing that the “alien planet” he’s been on is actually a post-apocalyptic Earth.

It’s unlikely that Reeves is remaking the 1968 classic, though. In an interview last year with JoBlo about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the continuing franchise, Reeves said that if he were to keep going, he would eventually get to the events from that film, though he’d approach it from a different perspective:

To me the idea is that the 1968 films stands as trajectory in that, what is so exciting is that the world of that film is so different from where things started in RISE, and the way they are in DAWN and now will be in the next film. There is a huge distance to cover between here and there that is all about Caesar and future generations, and how this world has transformed into that world, and the struggle that they’ll have to go through and how we create the world that we know from that. I think once you’ve gone through all of those chapters, you’ve gotten all the richness of those stories, you could very well find yourself going into that story again, but I think it would be from a new perspective. The idea would never be to remake the ’68 film.

It definitely sounds like it would take Reeves at least one more film after War for the Planet of the Apes before he gets to the events from the original film, if he ever does.

In addition, Reeves revealed on Twitter that he’s shooting the film in 65mm. It’s strange that shooting on actual film has become something of a special event, with more directors forgoing the traditional medium in favor of digital, and most theaters no longer utilizing classic film projectors.

So far we know that War for the Planet of the Apes features Andy Serkis reprising his role as Caesar, with newcomer Gabriel Chavarria and Woody Harrelson on the human side, and Steve Zahn recently cast as a new ape character.

The film hits theaters on July 14, 2017.