Were shooting in these fields and its just like infestation.
It was just one of the many sacrifices we made for the audience.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Wes Ball on set.Image: Fox
Tell me what it was that made you not want to do itand what made you actually do it?
Wes Ball: You didnt need to continue the trilogy in a way, right?
It had a perfect little beginning, middle, and end.
Image: Fox
There was no reason to go back into it.
I didnt see how you would stretch a lot of story out of that.
And you dont want to be a part four.
Image: Fox
Part fours dont work, typically.
You know, beginning, middle, end.
Were wired for that.
Image: Fox
One, two, three.
I think we found a way to do it.
Hopefully fans will appreciate it.
Image: Fox
Audiences who havent seen those movies will also still find value in it all and meaning in the story.
Theres been nine movies before us.
How do we kind of fit into that DNA?
Image: Fox
Hopefully, weve done it for people, well see.
Ball: Not Rupert, but Matt I had known on Mouse Guard.
Two years before, we had known each other.
And I picked his brain about the mocap and all that kind of stuff that he did on Apes.
So I got my feet wet there.
And he was always a great source of experience and wisdom for that.
And I met Andy [Serkis] because I cast him in that movie, too.
So I met both those guys and I knew them.
I think he was literally on a plane to go do Batman.
And I got the sense that he said, I did mine, go [do yours].
And I felt confident in that.
If he told me that this was terrible, I would have walked away.
io9: I know he also officially consulted on this movie too.
Did you ask him to do that and what was that conversation like?
Hes the nicest, most generous guy ever.
I was like Andy, can I show you the stuff?
He was like, Dude, come on.
We talked for a few hours or something over Zoom [while] I was in Australia.
And then he came on and I asked him to go talk to the actors.
The actors have never done this before.
He was just a cool dude, man.
io9: You mentioned how Caesars ideas play an important part in the movie.
Talk about tracking and balancing his influence on this time and these characters.
Ball: That was the interesting idea because of the time jump.
In our own human history, weve had plenty of lost knowledge.
We make these great discoveries, and then we lose it, and someone rediscovers it.
And how it can split.
Its going to shape him into the future going forward.
io9: Apes with birds is a big part of the marketing for this movie.
Where did that idea come from?
Ball: Yeah, it was just this idea.
Ive talked about it before, but, apes were in the Stone Age in the previous movies.
Apes are entering the Bronze Age in this movie.
Cultures, different worlds, evolution, mirroring our own as a species marching through civilization.
[So] I cant do dogs, what do I do?
I landed on eagles.
Its a cool visual, and I just liked the idea.
We dont do a lot of exposition.
We dont explain a lot of it.
You just have to infer a lot of it.
And I think this is what youre getting here.
io9: Im also curious about the title.
You made a joke online about how long it wasso, was that always the title?
Ball: I had two different titles.
I came in when I was pitching and I had two pieces of concept art that I made.
This king, the first king ape.
[But] I get it, I get it.
Its just thats the way these movies go.
You sort of suck it up.
Ball: I would do the same of him.
What did he mean?
Ball: Oh, great.
Well, one of our locations was a leech field.
Everyone was just crawling with leeches and they got everywhere because you dont feel them.
So were shooting in these fields and its just like infestation.
And you realize theres been a leech latching on to you and your foot is covered in blood.
It was just one of the many sacrifices we made for the audience.
io9: Working with Weta, you have to think anything is possible, but also maybe not.
Ball: Yeah, theres plenty of that.
io9: Give me one example
Ball: I wanted to do the greatest horse chase.
Basically, a car chase on horseback is what I kept pitching it as.
It could be awesome.
It was taking place on the remains of an old Los Angeles freeway system.
Theyre all interchanging and theyre collapsing and it was nuts.
I prevized it, I storyboarded it, and its freaking awesome.
And I just could not afford it.
It was too much.
How did that come about?
Ball: Yeah, just one of the cool discoveries.
Thats a perfect example of how we thought, blink and you miss it.
You dont even realize that youre in the remains of a world anymore.
[Earlier] he falls through and you realize, Where am I?
That was just a cool idea throughout the movie [where] we do that.
Zelda is on a whole other level in terms of responsibility.
What can you say about how you decided Yes, I can do this.
Ball: Its the same thing I learned on The Maze Runner movie on a smaller scale.
I think it had sold like five million copies of books when we started that movie.
But the fan base was loud and intense.
And so I learned a little bit of that.
Expectations came there and they told me when I got it wrong.
Same thing on this one.
I dont have blinders on.
I know what Im going into.
I would not have done it unless I thought I was capable of doing it.
I wouldnt have done this movie if I didnt think I was capable of doing it.
But I grew up playing Zelda, dreaming about Zelda, thinking about Zelda.
Its an important thing to me, so I will do my best to not mess it up.
Did that happen on Zelda as well?
Ill say its been many years.
Would you even like to?
What is next for you?
Ball: I would be lucky, obviously, to do it.
Wed want to get it right.
So I think thats the beauty of it.
We can take our time to get it right.
And I dont think this is a franchise that has to be made tomorrow.
Check back next week for more from Ball.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in theaters Friday.
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