Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a 2024 American sci-fi action film directed by Wes Ball and written by Josh Friedman, based on the characters developed by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.
It is a direct sequel to the 2017 film War for the Planet of the Apes, which itself was the third installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and premiered after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) in the US.
The film is produced by Joe Hartwick Jr, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Jason T Reed under his own production house and Oddball Entertainment, while the distribution is handled by 20th Century Fox.
When and where was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes filmed?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was primarily shot in Australia, with locations including Disney Studios Australia, Helensburgh, and potentially Sydney and Yellow Rock Ridge, as per local press.
Principal shooting for the movie began in October 2022 under the working title Forbidden Zone, Variety reported. The filming wrapped after five months on February 15, 2023.
Director Ball shared a short video clip on X (formerly twitter) along with the clapperboard.
That’s a wrap! 🦍🤝💪 🎉#kingdomoftheplanetoftheapes pic.twitter.com/ZeKeXNuuod
— Wes Ball (@wesball) February 15, 2023
Disney Studios, Sydney
The main filming location for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was the Disney Studios in Sydney, Australia.
This massive studio complex in Moore Park provided a controlled environment for filming interior scenes and soundstage work.
Moreover, this state-of-the-art facility was used to recreate the decaying cities and wilderness areas overrun by the highly intelligent ape civilization.
Helensburgh, New South Wales
While a portion was likely built on soundstages, the village exteriors were filmed amid the lush forests of Helensburgh, just south of Sydney.
This historic town south of Sydney offered a unique backdrop for the film. Its natural beauty, including rugged bushland and sandstone cliffs, was transformed into the wild and unforgiving world the apes now inhabit.
This allowed the crew to really capture the essence of the apes’ return to a more primal, natural way of life. Sydney itself also played host to location filming for some of the human settlement scenes.
Sydney, New South Wales
Australia’s largest city lent itself to portraying the remnants of a fallen human metropolis. Specific locations within Sydney haven’t been confirmed, but you can expect to see desolate cityscapes and overgrown urban environments that showcase the impact of humanity’s absence in the sci-fi movie.
Yellow Rock Ridge, New South Wales
Rumor has it that some of the shooting have taken place at this dramatic sandstone ridge formation located northwest of Sydney. Its stark beauty and towering cliffs could have been used to depict the apes’ stronghold or a pivotal confrontation point in the story.
If you’re loving the exploration of theses locations, you might also love to exlore other recent productions like Baby Reindeer, The Asunta Case, Paging Mr Darcy, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Mean Girls.
Comparing Kingdom’s Locations to Rise of the Planet of the Apes
While Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set many years after the events of Rise, there are narrative threads connecting the two films. So it’s fitting that some of the same locations were revisited and expanded upon.
The Muir Woods National Monument in California was a pivotal location in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, where Caesar and his troop of enhanced apes first made their bid for freedom.
For Kingdom of the apes, the production returned to these redwood forests to show how the apes have truly inherited the Earth and made it their home in the years since the Simian Flu outbreak.
Similarly, the urban decay and civil unrest that started to consume San Francisco in Rise will be taken to an even more extreme, apocalyptic level in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
While different parts of Sydney stand in for the ruined city, longtime fans will certainly get an unsettling sense of deja vu.
Ultimately, by building so effectively on the locations of Rise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes seems to take viewers on a powerfully immersive journey back into this disturbingly plausible ape-ruled world.
Who’s in the cast of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?
- Freya Allan as Mae
- Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar
- Peter Macon as Raka
- Sara Wiseman as Dar
- Owen Teague as Noa
- Travis Jeffery as Anaya
- Nina Gallas as Youngster #1
- Ras-Samuel as (as Welda’abzgi)
- Dichen Lachman
- William H. Macy
- Lydia Peckham
- Neil Sandilands
- Eka Darville
What is the plot of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?
Imagine a world where apes rule and humans are kind of like wild animals hiding in the forest! That’s the setting for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”
Our hero, Noa, is a young ape who discovers a shocking truth about the past. Meanwhile, a grumpy ape king named Proximus Caesar (not related to the Caesar you might know) is building an ape empire and wants to enslave other apes to find cool human technology.
Noa gets tangled up in this mess and has to team up with a mysterious human girl named Mae on a daring adventure to stop Proximus Caesar and decide the future for both apes and humans – will they live together in peace or fight for survival?
FAQs
Why was Australia chosen as the primary filming location?
Australia offered the ideal combination of high-tech studio facilities at Disney Studios and diverse natural settings like the forests around Helensburgh to depict the apes’ village. The Sydney area also provided compelling urban environments to portray human settlements after societal collapse.
How does the film connect location-wise to Rise of the Planet of the Apes?
While set years later, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes revisits key locations from Rise like the Muir Woods redwood forests and the decaying urban sprawl of San Francisco (with Sydney subbing in).
