Where to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Trivia & production notes

• Rick Jaffa got the initial concept for the film after reading a newspaper article about pet primates that become problematic for their owners and struggle to adapt to human environments.
• Directors Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Rodriguez, and Tomas Alfredson all turned down the opportunity to direct the film before Rupert Wyatt took on the role.
• Screenwriters Mark Bomback and Scott Frank performed uncredited rewrites of the script.
• Filming took place in Vancouver, San Francisco, and Oahu, with Hawaii standing in for an African jungle because the production schedule and budget did not permit actual location shooting in Africa.
• Weta Digital used motion capture to create the apes rather than employing actors in suits or working with real animals.
• Nearly 1,500 visual effects shots were previsualized for the film.
• A breakthrough camera that could display motion capture dots in daylight enabled much of the filming to occur on location rather than confined to soundstages, and was primarily used for the Golden Gate Bridge sequence.
• While Andy Serkis performed Caesar, actor-stuntman Terry Notary also played the character in stunt-heavy scenes like the Golden Gate Bridge battle, and Devyn Dalton's motion capture work was used because his height matched that of a chimpanzee.
• Animators created a new facial muscle system and eye model for the digital apes to depict tears, pupil dilation, and light refraction with greater accuracy.
• The Golden Gate Bridge set combined a physical structure extended digitally with a fully computer-generated model that also included the ocean and surrounding hills.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Rise of the Planet of the Apes, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.