Rizhon: The trilogy that came before, especially the two directed by Matt Reeves, had a very distinctive style, honoring the original films while forging their own path. Was the plan to do a simmilar thing with the new film? Or make it a more direct continuation, stylistically and narratively of the last films?
Ball: Yes. I've spoken about this before, but I was very skeptical about doing another Apes film at first. I felt the last trilogy was a perfect 1,2,3... beginning, middle, end. I wasn't interested in doing a shameless part 4. At the same time I didn't really want to abandon the Caesar storyline/universe.
A week or so later I had a few sudden ideas that got me really excited... a way into a new story that would allow us to stand on our own two feet while still honoring the trilogy and the original '68 movie. We are sort of a distant sequel and a prequel that way. I grew watching that original 68 film so those images are etched into my mind, I was confident my love of the movies would keep me on the right path even as we forged into new territory.
I've always said the last three movies were apes in their Stone Age, I thought it would be awesome to think about Apes entering into their Bronze Age. Witness them developing cultures and rituals and disparate clans of apes progressing along in different ways. Also seeing how Caesar's legacy had evolved, changed, been manipulated, etc. The distance opened up just a ton of stuff for us to explore.
Visually, I wanted to get away from shooting in Vancouver. It's a great look but we needed to change it up. Lensing-wise we decided to go with old anamorphic glass to give the movie a different look that almost felt like an old movie from the 70s. The previous films were all in spherical lenses, partially because doing VFX with anamorphic lenses is really tough. But we had to give the team at WETA a few new challenges. :) Even our LUT is based on an old AGFA film stock. Then of course, I'm a different filmmaker, that alone would change the style of the movie to some degree.
With that said, we still share a lot of the DNA from the previous movies. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silva were the first people I spoke to about the ideas. They wrote and produced on the previous movies. I won't speak for them, but I think they were skeptical at first too until we spoke and saw the potential. So they came on as producers and eventually writers. They're first contribution was introducing me to Josh Friedman who they had just written the Avatar sequels with... Josh is a great writer and he turned in our first draft that really got us all excited. It was WAY too long but hey, that's the way it often goes. Then we spent the time whittling it down and getting the shooting draft into the financial box that we had to hit.
While the script was being developed I was working with a ton of my dream team concept artist friends to figure out the designs of the film. That process is always key for me. I'd say that sorta my writing process.
Then it was off to the races. We had a few requirements from the studio to hit, but otherwise we set out to make this crazy thing and did our best to feel like we belong in the franchise of 9 previous movies over the course of 55 years. It was an honor to be a part of it all.
I could talk about all this forever, and have in various interviews, but I'll leave it there for now.
My_simple-review: Hi, Wes,
Thanks for doing this. When transitioning from one franchise like The Maze Runner to Planet of the Apes, what were some of the learning curves you had to face?
And in addition, what were your proudest achievements while making this movie?
Ball: It's a good question.
The Maze Runner movies were my first movies as a working director. I like to say they were good practice. Before them I had only done a few short films (you can search for A WORK IN PROGRESS and RUIN) and I had done a bit of VFX work here and there previously. The Maze Runner films were a great way to learn about making movies in the studio system. I got to start a movie franchise from scratch (obviously based on existing books). I got to sharpen some skills and develop new skills altogether. I'd never before worked with professional actors for instance. I was lucky in that the studio folks that would later become great friends really let me succeed or fail on my own merits. They supported and guided me through it all and couldn't have been better partners. I learned a ton.
Being my first films, I think you can clearly see my confidence grow in terms of craft and execution. And I learned how to really stretch a budget and how to put the money on the screen. The budget for those movies combined cost less than one Apes film. And the movies were successful with the intended audience, grossing just shy of a billion dollars in theaters. That alone was a quite a learning experience. And somehow the movies keep playing... which surprises me.