Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Toys Showcase Caesar’s New Look
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With the New York Toy Fair starting to wind down, we’ve seen a lot of new toys from popular upcoming science fiction movie properties such as Transformers: Age of Extinction, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star Wars. Although many people don’t associate Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with a popular toy line, Coming Soon has given a first look at NECA’s action figures featuring the evolved simians.
We see Caesar (performed by Andy Serkis) in full-body war paint in a fortress background, which is covered in some sort of writing. Joining Caesar is Maurice the Orangutan (Karin Konovol) and fan-favorite Rocket (Terry Notary), who looks just as menacing as Caesar. Maurice seems to be the elder statesman, while Caesar and Rocket are the group’s leader and warrior, respectively. We also see the apes’ rudimentary weapons, a collection of long sticks and staffs. The apes’ fortress looks like it’s made of bamboo and redwoods, while the forest provides them with shelter and isolation. It’s believed that the scene isn’t specifically recreating a scene from the upcoming sequel, but rather is just a diorama for collectors and display purposes.
As for the figures, they seem really textured, detailed, and made with high-quality materials. The set appears to be based on the Muir Forest, just outside of San Francisco. It’ll be interesting to see if NECA will make other Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sets, like one featuring Caesar’s wife Cornelia (Judy Greer), their teenage son River (Nick Thurston), or any of the human characters.
NECA also showed off action figures based on the original Planet of the Apes movies, namely Dr. Zaius, Cornelius, and a soldier. The toys are fully upright with classic clothes and weapons. I wonder if the apes of the rebooted franchise will start wearing clothes in the third film, considering Gary Oldman’s comments about director Matt Reeves trying to bridge the gap between the original Planet of the Apes movies and the new ones. Maybe American astronaut George Taylor, played in the original film by Charlton Heston, might make a cameo appearance.
Recently, Gary Oldman, who plays Dreyfus in the sequel film, revealed a few plot details. Apparently, the humans in the city and apes in Muir Forest have lived separately for 10 years, without any knowledge of each other’s continued existence. The dividing line between the two groups is San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Oldman’s character leads a team of humans to one of the few remaining power supplies in the city, and along the way they come into contact with the apes.
Dawn will star Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Thurston, Toby Kebbell, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, and Andy Serkis as Caesar. Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield) and screenwriter Mark Bomback (The Wolverine) rewrote Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver’s script. Jaffa and Silver also wrote Rise‘s original screenplay. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters everywhere on July 11, 2014, in 3D.
