In this fxpodcast, we speak to Director Wes Ball and Wētā FX Visual Effects Supervisor Erik Winquist about their film Kingdom Of the Planet of Apes.
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously, and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows.
As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all he has known about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball and stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. Josh Friedman wrote the film, based on characters created by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.
The visionary filmmaker Wes Ball made his mark in Hollywood in 2014 with the hit film “The Maze Runner,” which grossed more than $348 million worldwide. “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” and “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” both of which Ball directed, followed in 2015 and 2018, respectively. The “Maze Runner” trilogy has grossed close to $1 billion at the box office.
Visual Effects Supervisor Erik Winquist is best known for his work on Wētā FX high profile films such as Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005), and the Planet of the Apes prequel films. Erik Winquist was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 87th Academy Awards along with Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joe Letteri, for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, (see our coverage from 2014)
Wes Ball has been a longtime friend of fxguide, creating a course for our sister site fxphd.com back in 2009. With the release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, we decided to make five classes of Ball’s fxphd course Secrets of Paint and Roto available over at fxphd. Created back in 2009, this course used real-world production shots from TV shows as well as fxphd footage to walk through the completion of full shots. Head on over to fxphd and check out Wes’ course from back in the day.
