Rupert Wyatt

Rupert Wyatt

Rupert Wyatt returns to the director's chair this week for The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - a movie that is set to be the biggest of his career so far.

This is the first movie for the director since 2008 and only the fourth of his career so far, a career that he kicked off back in the late nineties.

The Brit kicked off his career in as a writer and producer when he penned the short Ticks back in 1999.

The short went on to be directed by Tony Randel and star Kacey Ainsworth with Wyatt on producing duties.

He made his directorial debut two years later with Subterrain, musical drama, before going on to direct The Escapist.

The Escapist was released back in 2008 and brought together a great cast of Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damien Lewis and Dominic Cooper.

Frank Perry is an institutionalised convict fourteen years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late by breaking out of prison.

The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was met very well by the critics. Wyatt went on to pick up several nominations, including Best Newcomer at Evening Standard British Film Awards and the London Critics' Circle Film Awards, for his work.

But The Rise of the Planet of the Apes looks set to be his breakthrough as the movie has already topped the U.S. box office - grossing $54 million in it's opening weekend.

Rise of the Apes is a completely new take on one of the Studio's most beloved and successful franchises.

Oscar-winning visual effects house WETA Digital -- employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for AVatar -- will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

He has once again assembled a good cast including Oscar nominee James Franco, Frieda Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Shelton and Andy Serkis - who takes on the role of main chimp Caesar.

The movie has been met well by the critics and has been called the surprise package of summer 2011.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes is released 12th August.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
find me on and follow me on


Tagged in