Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has added another lead in Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises).  The Mark Bomback script takes place 15 years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and finds humanity all but wiped out by the race of super-intelligent apes.  Part of the story centers on a group of scientists in San Francisco who are mounting a resistance against their new oppressors while Caesar (Andy Serkis) struggles to maintain dominance over his kingdom.  It’s looking like Oldman will play Dreyfus, the leader of a human colony in the sequel, due out May 23, 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In) has been cast as a lead in Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  When the sequel added Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) just a few days ago, we learned that the plot would be set 15 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes and involve  “the group of human scientists who are struggling to survive alone in San Francisco.”  We still don’t know exactly how Clarke and Smit-McPhee fit into the story, but they’re both solid additions.  Also featuring the return of Andy Serkis in his phenomenal role of Caesar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is due out May 23, 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

We previously reported that James Franco might reprise his role as Will in the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  However, that was when Rise director Rupert Wyatt was still attached to the project.  Now that Wyatt has left and Matt Reeves (Let Me In) has come on board, it looks like Franco won’t be needed.

Hit the jump for more.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is due out May 23, 2014.

The marketing campaign for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel looks to be getting off to an incredibly early start.  The first teaser image/poster for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes popped up online earlier today over at the Facebook page for director Rupert Wyatt’s 2011 reboot.  Wyatt was originally set to helm Dawn but subsequently dropped out of the project due to concerns over meeting the film’s 2014 release date, but luckily the very talented Matt Reeves (Let Me In) quickly stepped in and is now set to helm the follow-up.  Hit the jump to take a look at the image.

[Update: It appears that someone was having a little fun with the official Facebook page, as the image released was not a promo image from the film but is in fact an existing piece of photography art.  The image has been removed from the Facebook page.]

Although the release date is more than 18 months away, it looks like director Rupert Wyatt may be stepping away from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  Wyatt directed the 2011 reboot/prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and was expected to return for multiple sequels along with star Andy Serkis.  Now, reports are coming out that Wyatt is exiting the production with the explanation that he doesn’t feel comfortable making the expected release date of May 23, 2014.  Hit the jump for much more, including what this move means for the future of the sequel and for Wyatt’s career.

Going into this weekend, there were some people who believed Sony’s remake of Total Recall would give The Dark Knight Rises a run for its money. Those people were wrong. With an estimate of $36.4 million, TDKR claimed its third straight weekend at number one while Total Recall barely topped the debut of the Arnold Schwarzenegger original… back in 1990.

Reports that audiences were afraid to see The Dark Knight Rises on the weekend after the Aurora tragedy turned out to be not so true. Yes, the film had a steeper than usual drop on Friday but then rebounded nicely; taking first place with an estimated $64 million. It must have been the week’s two new releases that people were ‘hesitant’ to see. Neither The Watch nor Step Up Revolution made it out of the low teens on their opening frame.

The 38th annual Saturn Awards were held last night in Burbank, California to honor the best films and television shows in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror.  In the film category, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Super 8 led the pack while the lion’s share of television honors went to Breaking Bad and Fringe.  Stay tuned for a ton of interviews from the night’s event and hit the jump to check out the full list of winners.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes proved to be a sizable sleeper hit for Fox last summer. In an interview at CinemaCon, Fox CEO Tom Rothman told Steve that the studio was “pushing forward aggressively” on a sequel, in anticipation of a possible summer 2014 release date. Director Rupert Wyatt and star (no offense to James Franco) Andy Serkis were both already set to return; today comes news that Contagion and The Bourne Ultimatum scribe Scott. Z. Burns will write the script.

The first film saw a scientist (James Franco) experimenting on apes in search of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The result was super-intelligent chimp Caesar (Serkis), who, disgusted by the mistreatment he and his kind endure at the hands of man, leads an uprising. The sequel will, predictably, see Caesar and co. making use of their hard-won freedom to gain dominion over the planet (making it a sort of, “Planet of the Monkeys,” if you will). Hit the jump for more.

At this year’s CinemaCon, I was able to land an exclusive interview with Tom Rothman (Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment).  While we posted selected portions of the interview last week, after the jump you can read the entire conversation which covers a lot more than comic book movies.  I love getting to speak with actors and directors, but if you really want to find out which projects are moving forward and why certain decisions were made, a studio head has all the answers.

During the wide-ranging conversation we talked about 48 frames per second, the shift towards higher quality films on Fox’s slate, Prometheus (and it’s rating), Daredevil, Fantastic Four, the Chronicle sequel, The Wolverine, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, a New Mutants movie, A Good Day to Die Hard (Die Hard 5), and more.  Hit the jump to read what he had to say.

Director Rupert Wyatt delivered a surprise hit with last summer’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The franchise had been in cold storage since the atrocious Tim Burton remake but Fox decided to give the Apes another chance, and it paid off wonderfully (even though the film was flat-out robbed of the Best Visual Effects Oscar).  Although James Franco was the name on the marquee, the prequel made Caesar (Andy Serkis) the real star and Weta’s special effects geniuses helped bring the character to life.

Last November, we reported that 20th Century Fox was planning multiple sequels to the successful blockbuster with Wyatt and Serkis slated to return.  Steve recently interviewed the studio’s CEO, Tom Rothman, and learned that they’re hoping to get the next movie in theaters by summer 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

The 2012 Annie Awards were held last night, and critical favorite Rango ended up deservedly taking home the Best Animated Feature award. Gore Verbinski’s quirky western also took home the award for Best Writing in a Feature Production, Best Editing, and the Members Favorite Award, but lost Best Directing to Kung Fu Panda 2’s Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Bill Nighy won Best Voice Acting for Arthur Christmas, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes took home the Character Animation in a Live Action Feature Production award.

On the television side of things, The Simpsons was awarded the top prize as well as Best Directing and Best Writing. Heading into the Academy Awards, Rango is our clear frontrunner. The Adventures of Tintin was pegged as the film’s biggest competition at the Oscar ceremony, but the Steven Spielberg film was ultimately left out of the nominations. Hit the jump to see the full list of Annie Awards Winners.

Although he is an accomplished stage and screen actor in his own right, Andy Serkis has become the go-to guy for motion capture performance. He was remarkable as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and as the title character in King Kong, but it was his work as the intelligent chimp Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes that earned him a Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). Collider was there to cover and attend the event, and we’ve compiled the highlights of what the actor had to say, both on the press line and during the Q&A.

While there, Andy Serkis talked about how performance capture technology is just another form of acting, finding his inner ape to play Caesar and why that character is different from Kong, what it was like to revisit the character of Gollum for The Hobbit films, so many years later, how great it is to work on the live-action set this time, and the experience of working with all of the actors who are new to Middle Earth while also directing Second Unit. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

Because major Awards bodies still think in 20th century terms, it’s unlikely Andy Serkis will get the Oscar nomination he deserves for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  There seems to be confusion over whether digital make-up does too much work for the actor, and I can understand that thinking.  However, when it comes to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Serkis’ performance as Caesar, that thinking is absolutely wrong and a new behind-the-scenes video proves it.  If anything, the video shows WETA’s incredible special effects almost struggling to keep up with the actor rather than embellishing his performance.

If you had any doubt as to whether or not Serkis deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance, hit the jump to check out this video.  Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24th at 8:38 AM (EST).