With all the rumors regarding the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" sequel, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" it is refreshing to hear some confirmed plot details. This time, the plot leak comes from the man himself, Gary Oldman!
During an interview with MTV, Gary Oldman was asked about the "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes". Gary Oldman revealed that the plot follows a society of humans who survived in the wake of the ape virus that crippled the planet at the end of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".
Gary Oldman revealed that his character has been elected as the leader of this crew, and he's "experienced great loss," leading to him feeling spiteful towards the apes. Ultimately, his character's endgame is ape genocide, to "wipe them out."
Gary Oldman's character Dreyfus, is a former police officer who's been elected to lead a small community "of those that were lucky enough to survive the simian flu, the disease, and then the ensuing social uprising from it," Oldman said, adding that the character is fairly militaristic, especially when he makes a shocking discovery.
"[The community] need[s] power and there's a power station and some of my people go out to see if it's operational, if it's still out there, and then they discover that there's a whole community of apes living there. We believed they were all completely fire-bombed and wiped out," Oldman said.
"There's only one answer for him," Oldman said of Dreyfus's response to the discovery, "which is to fight, wipe them out," motivated in part because the character "has experienced great loss personally." Oldman sees Dreyfus "as the sort of hero of the piece," he revealed, crediting director Matt Reeves with infusing "Dawn" with vibrant characters so that the desolation of humanity in future entries in the franchise would be felt more sharply.
"He wanted to make it more of a human story. He wanted to explore what had happened, and keep it more focused on the human side of it, before the story becomes the 'Planet of the Apes' as we know it from the original."
Fans of the "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" noticed some time travel hints during the movie, possibly following the story line of the previous "Planet of the Apes" films, however co-writer and producer of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", Rick Jaffa debunked those rumors and confirmed that a time travel plot won't appear on "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
"I don't foresee that," Rick Jaffa tells Total Film, "But it's interesting you should ask that, because it's the one big element that we made a conscious decision not to explore in the first one, and we were worried that there might be some backlash in the science fiction community because of it. When the story first came together we were very, very excited, and yet before we pitched it, I thought, 'The one thing missing though is time travel. But it's not necessary for this particular telling.'"
