Three short films have surfaced that bridge the 10-year gap between Rise and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. 20th Century Fox collaborated with VICE's Motherboard to make the shorts that ultimately promote a documentary on a real-life “Monkey Island” in Liberia. And before you ask, no, there won't be any monkey butlers.
The movies are filled with fear and depression, so if you have been having a great day, the rain is about to pour on your parade. Cue the foreboding sense of doom!
Spread of Simian Flu: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 1) – Amidst a widespread viral outbreak known as the 'Simian Flu,' a mother is quarantined after testing positive for the virus, leaving her husband and daughter to fend for themselves.
Struggling to Survive: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 5) – Five years after the Simian Flu all but wiped out humanity, an orphaned teenage girl survives by bartering things she has stolen from dead people's homes.
Story of the Gun: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 10) – The journey of a shotgun through the hands of several ill-fated owners as the 'Simian Flu' ravages the world around them.
When Lab Tested Apes Take Over (Documentary) – It all culminates in ISLAND OF THE APES, a documentary film about a series of six islands now solely populated by former lab-tested chimpanzees who survived disease and two civil wars. Now that's why they call it "Monkey Island".
While I watched all of these, I asked myself the same question over and over again; how long will it take for another Apes TV series to come forward? You know it’s going to happen. A lot happened between the time of Rise and Dawn; a viral outbreak began to spread across the human population and the Apes basically won. I wouldn’t mind a TV series milking that for all its worth, would you?
The stage is set for DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES opening on Friday, July 11, 2014.