One of the most pleasant surprises of 2011 was Rise of the Planet of the Apes. While most expected it to be that forgettable monkey movie with James Franco, director Rupert Wyatt crafted one of the most enthralling films of the year. Fox has nabbed both Wyatt and actor Andy Serkis to return for a sequel, and all parties involved are hard at work on crafting the story. Screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver recently confirmed that they’re working on the sequel script, and they spoke a bit about what they’ve got planned, including the possibility of having the Apes talk. Hit the jump to see what they had to say.rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-movie-image-03It’s already been confirmed that Fox is planning not one, but multiple sequels to Rise (which is a very good thing if Wyatt stays involved), but how far the story would be advancing for the next film has been one of the primary questions. Wyatt himself ruminated on the possibility of picking up eight years after Rise and moving the apes into human environments. Appearing on the Q&A podcast with Jeff Goldsmith (via Bleeding Cool), Jaffa and Silver said one of the key questions they’ve had to confront is whether or not the apes will talk in the sequel:

“We’re working on the sequel right now, to the prequel, and so the excitement is – I’m not gonna tell you, but – are they gonna talk or not? Part of the challenge was how to get across what was happening between the apes without words. In the end I think it was a good challenge for us. It created better storytelling.”

It’s no secret that the apes eventually learn to talk (and we saw the beginnings of that with Caesar in Rise), but it makes sense that Wyatt and Co. would want to carefully work out exactly when speech enters the apes’ repertoire. My guess is we’ll be seeing that apes begin to speak in this first sequel, but not developing full speech until the end of the film. Whatever the case, I’m really looking forward to seeing what the crew comes up with for the follow-up. The sequel is set to be Wyatt’s next film, but no production start date has been announced.

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