Predicting what will work as a summer blockbuster these days is as easy in trying to figure out what goes through a politician’s mind. Enter in Rise of the Planet of the Apes; another 2011 origin/prequel entry; based off the well-known Planet of the Apes storyline, was fairly quiet in tooting its promotional horn when compared to all the superhero/comic book origin tales bestowed upon audiences these last few months.

About 90 of the 105 minutes are a pleasant surprise and this origin tale could end up being one of the better ones you’ll see this year. Not to mention, one of the better summer blockbusters to boot.

Will Rodman (James Franco – casually interested this time) is a scientist residing in San Francisco, who is hell-bent on finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. A good portion of his motivation arises from trying to cure his father (James Lithgow) who is badly suffering from the incurable disease all while living with Will. The testing – done on chimps of course – has a breakthrough as the results see the test subjects gain intelligence; which translates to the drug working on humans to remedy the parts of the brain affected by the disease.

However, a few executives aren’t sold on the drug, after one of the test-chimps causes a scene in the lab. Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) orders the immediate “disposal” of the remaining subjects. As Will reluctantly goes through with the order, he finds one of the test subjects had an offspring. Will takes the young chimp home and begins to conduct his own personal tests, since the drug used on the chimp’s mother, transferred to the little guy he names Caesar (Andy Serkis doing the motion-capture thing).

Eventually, he begins testing the modified drug on his father and the results are astounding at first. Even Caesar continues to display remarkable intellectual growth. The rapidly evolving chimp is also showing a curiosity that gets him into trouble; a kind of trouble that leads him to be secluded in a primate holding facility with other ape species. Thanks to the crappy treatment by employees (Tom Felton & Brian Cox), Caesar becomes the leader of the caged crew and let’s just say they plan on changing how things are run around here.

The steady build-up is met with great anticipation from the viewing audience. Majority of the people seeing this should have some inkling to what the premise is as depicted by the numerous Planet of the Apes’ movie adaptations, the most recent being the 2001 remake helmed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg. This prequel or reboot boasts the same theme of having superior-intelligent monkeys eventually overthrowing the human race, but this installment tweaks the reasoning of why and how. And this angle comes to the forefront towards the final 15 minutes – which is the only uneventful moment of this dramatic tale.

Yes, seeing the relationship and mannerisms of the CGI Caesar, as he grows-up in a suburban neighborhood, all while dealing with urges to play and explore life, is riveting and engaging. The complimenting musical score actually enhances the mood of what is happening on screen, to the point you realize that you’re watching something monumental take place. It really becomes an emotional viewing experience during the first two acts. The story does leap forward as the chronicling of Caesar and Will’s life is done over a roughly ten year time frame (if I did the math right). Every situation that Caesar is put in becomes an emotional spectacle and the pacing of the script by director Rupert Wyatt lingers on all the right things in justifying later actions.

As for the CGI work, everything appears real. When the apes become organized in the confines of the primate shelter; to then breaking free and weaving through neighborhoods, corporate buildings and battling police officers on the Golden Gate Bridge are all exciting to watch thanks to the realism of the situation. The climatic sequences are solid in the action department, yet this is where the story’s polished shine looses some of its luster. Mainly because you’ll learn the direction of where this tweaking reboot is headed and it takes a hit in the originality department.

Overall, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a provocative drama that dabbles in thrilling action at all the right moments. The intelligence of the screenplay is on-point when the focus is on the CGI apes as it does a thorough job in setting the tonal levels of where this origin tale is heading. Based on the intensity of the ending and the chosen the direction, the final moments is the only time the entertainment and intelligence levels drop (seemed too Disney-like). In the end though, one will be calling for more Apes.

RATING: 4 out of 5

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20th Century Fox have released the first TV spot for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It’s light on the action, but it does contain bits of new footage including a scuffle between James Franco and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter). It also looks like WETA are well on their way to completing the visuals, as we’re now getting even closer close-ups of the apes (think eyeballs).

Watch below:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an origins story set in present-day San Francisco. The film is a reality-based cautionary tale, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. One hyper-intelligent chimp called Caesar (motion captured by Andy Serkis) incites a worldwide ape revolution and causes the downfall of humankind.

James Franco plays a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes, with Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto playing a primatologist. The movie also stars John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar, and will be released August 5, 2011.

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Back in May the cast and crew of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II got a bit of attention as they were filming at Kings Cross station in London. Due to the public setting images of Daniel Radcliffe, Bonnie Wright, Tom Felton, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson looking much older appeared online, and fans worked out that they were shooting the final scenes of the Harry Potter saga.

It seems the chaos and limited time in which they had to shoot didn’t result in the best ending possible, so director David Yates and the gang will be re-shooting parts of scene in the comfort of Leavesden Studios.

From HitFix:

“We are re-shooting some parts of it,” Radcliffe confirms. “It was an interesting one. I think we made it very hard on ourselves because we shot it at King’s Cross for real. And this time we’ll be shooting it at Leavesden on set. To have to rush that sequence and it’s an important sequence, is not something any of us want to do.

Radcliffe continued and reiterated, “It’s a train station and people actually needed to use that platform. We made it very hard on ourselves and we really want a slightly slower, more measured pace next time.”

Co-star Emma Watson later confirmed how difficult it was to shoot the scenes in a real station, describing it as a “stressful one.”

“I mean, you can imagine, we stopped trains when they said we could do the scene. I mean, we are special – we are ‘Harry Potter,’” Watson says in an intentionally sarcastic and light-hearted tone. “We only had two days to shoot it and we needed so much more time than that. We have reshoots at Christmas.”

The scene, which catches up with the trio many years after the events of Deathly Hallows, will most likely be the final scene of the whole franchise so they obviously want to get it right, and they will be able to do that back in a controlled environment.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 will be released in less than a weeks time, on November 19th, and Part 2 will be released July 2011.

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Now that the Harry Potter franchise has finally completed filming after 10 years the cast can focus their attention onto other roles. Daniel Radcliffe has been doing stage work over recent years and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) will be seen next year in The Apparition for Warner Bros.

Now both actors have signed up to appear in two rather interesting films. One is The Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes, and the other is a supernatural thriller called The Woman in Black. But who is in what?

According to ShockTillYouDrop (which was later confirmed by Radcliffe’s publicity) Dan is set to star in The Woman in Black which follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black.

The stage play has been running in London since 1989, and I have been lucky enough to see it twice. It is a great horror story, one that I suspect writer Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Stardust) had fun adapting. In the play there are only 2 actors in the whole production (3 if you include the Woman in Black) but they will likely add more roles for the film.

This means that Tom Felton will be battling hyper-intelligent chimps in Rise of the Apes. According to Chris Petrikin Felton will be the son of Brian Cox, who plays the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there.

Rise of the Apes began shooting this month for a June 2011 release, and The Woman in Black is expected to begin filming later this year.

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Yesterday saw the opening of Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Bonnie Wright, Oliver Phelps, Matthew Lewis, Warwick Davis, Rupert Grint and James Phelps were all there to kick off the celebrations. John Williams was also in attendance to conduct a special performance of music from the Harry Potter films.

You can watch the grand revealing of Hogwarts castle below:

I hope they get Williams to compose the score for the final film. That would round off the franchise in an epic fashion.

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On Monday there were reports that the cast and crew of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II were filming at Kings Cross station in London. This was followed by set photos of Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright as older versions of Harry and Ginny appearing online, and now we have our first look at Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley looking old for the Deathly Hallows epilogue.

As you can see from the image above Ronald Weasley is looking slightly plumper than we’ve seen in the films. Below is a video of Rupert Grint and Tom Felton in costume on the Kings Cross platform, and a closer look at Draco from SnitchSeeker.

I doubt Warner Bros. will want people to be seeing this, but I suppose that’s what happens when you bring the cast out in public as opposed to shooting in the comfort of Leavesden Studios. They had the same problem when Emma, Daniel and Rupert were running around London last year.

Last month Tom Felton said “for nearly two months, we’ve all been doing prosthetic tests and all sorts of preparation for the epilogue. I’ve been having some aging training. You’ve got to walk differently. There’s a slump in your walk.”

The make-up and prosthetic may look a bit weird now but I’m sure it’ll look great during the final scenes of Part II next July.

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Update: Click here to see footage of old versions of Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley!

Update: Images from the set can be seen here! (contains image of Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright as older versions of Harry and Ginny).

It looks like filming on the Harry Potter franchise is drawing to a close. A muggle was at Kings Cross station in London today and spotted the cast and crew filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. Those who have read the book will know what scene takes place here, and it will probably be one of the, if not the final scene of the Harry Potter franchise.

Possible spoilers below, from MuggleNet:

Just returned home, after a big surprise I ran into at Kings Cross Station. Apparantly there was some shooting for a Harry Potter film, and although we haven’t been able to see the actual filming, I will give you as much information as possible. The entire platform was fenced off, and there was alot of security to keep the people out. There were dozens of people standing on the nearest bridge, trying to find out what was happening. First I didn’t realize what was going on, until Tom Felton and Dan Radcliffe arrived at the scene, surrounded by security. From that moment everyone realized it was Harry Potter shooting, and all the cell phones appeared.

There was obviously no time to sign people’s books, because they were gone by that. They looked amazing, because … they’d been turned into adults!! They wore cool costumes that seemed to be a combination between a modern business suit and wizarding robes. Dan’s hairdo looked especially cool: the sides were combed backwards, and the front had this ‘old skool’ wave, on one side. He was a little bit wrinkled, and had facial stubble. Tom looked somewhat older, because his hairline was kinda receding, and it was quite colorless. They both had extremely realistic adult faces. There were also some child actors on the scene, so I guess those are their children. They weren’t dressed wizard-ish, for the record. But I haven’t been able to have a good look. For about twenty minutes we’ve been waiting there, but the actors had obviously taken another exit. Oh, and of course, we saw the Hogwarts Express and its thick, white smoke, and there were alot of extras on the scene, based on what we’ve seen.

We’ve been hearing from the cast over recent months that the epilogue scene will be one of the final scenes shot, so filming on the movie and the franchise as a whole may conclude over the upcoming days/weeks.

We have good reason to believe that the first trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I will be released next month, most likely with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on June 24th.

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Earlier this year producer David Heyman revealed that the final battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (or The Battle of Hogwarts as it’s known in the book) will be around 30 minutes long. That’s 30 minutes of wizarding duels, death, and destruction that will draw the franchise to a close in an epic fashion.

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the films, recently spoke to MTV while promoting the Half-Blood Prince DVD and he spoke about filming these scenes (we heard that around 43 principal cast members were needed on set for filming last month).

“It’s kind of cool, because this is the first time we’ve had so many castmembers on one set at one time, especially everyone from the evil camp and everyone from the good camp in a Western-style showdown — without revealing too much,” said Felton, who plays the nefarious Draco Malfoy. “It’s an amazing last scene, what we’ve shot of it so far. It’s very exciting.”

That’s not the only scene left to complete. The yearlong shoot was originally slated to wrap up at the end of April, but it’s now been extended well into June. Though the end is far off, Felton laughed that he, Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the cast are looking forward to what should be a killer wrap party, a decade after they began filming the first movie in the series.

In the meantime, Felton is looking forward to returning to the “Potter” set across the Atlantic. “I’ve rarely had an opportunity to work with the evil family,” he said. “I’m working with Helena Bonham Carter, who’s a lovely lady and also a completely scary witch when she wants to be. I’m enjoying working with adult cast tremendously.”

He also told Female First that they’ve “been shooting outdoors at the moment and they build, basically this decrepit castle that’s all been smashed up and it’s quite incredible”.

It looks like Hogwarts will be a great pile of rubble when it’s all been said and done. I wonder if a quick ‘Reparo!‘ will be sufficient?

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Actor Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movie, likes to sing! Apparently, he’s recording an album, which is going to be available sometime soon on iTunes. We’ll keep you posted when it’s available for download. Until then, check out a sample medley of four of his songs below:

What do you think?! Will you buy his album??

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