Wes Ball Says ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Has More Simulation Data Than ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

Director Wes Ball revealed the 4th entry in the Planet of the Apes reboot, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, has more simulation data than James Cameron’s CGI heavy Avatar: The Way of Water.

What is ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’?

The forthcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is releasing in theatres this weekend, will be the fourth entry in the new rebooted franchise which started in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The new instalment is set approximately 300 years after War for the Planet of the Apes and will follow a host of new characters. In the film “a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.”

Wes Ball Speaks On Technological Details In The Film

Recently at WonderCon, director Wes Ball sat down with Screen Rant to talk about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Ball was asked about the technological advancements used in the film compared to the franchise’s predecessors. The director spoke on the lenses used in the film and the approach to using anamorphic lenses which the prior 3 films did not use. “It feels like one of those old movies from the 70s that you watched, so the lenses are kinda crappy on the sides.” Says Ball.

Additionally, Ball spoke on the LUT (Lookup table) used for the film: “Even our LUT is based on an old Agfa film LUT. I hadn’t even heard of it before. So it’s this old 70s thing that does this really great thing to the skin tones, so it has a feel like it’s this old found movie from decades ago even though it’s the most cutting edge best visual effects you’ve ever seen.”

Wes Ball Says The Film Has More Simulation Data Than ‘The Way of Water’

Additionally, the director had high praise for Wētā — the visual effects company that Ball also worked with for the Maze Runner trilogy. “They create miracles on-screen,” Ball says of Wētā. Furthermore, Ball spoke on the simulations used for the film, “There’s a tremendous amount of simulation work in this movie that I think is fantastic… they’re doing things that haven’t been done before.”

Finally, Ball spoke on the size of the data, “Just the simulation data, the cache file that they render for this stuff, it’s 10 – 11 petabytes of material. That’s more than The Way of Water, is what I’m told.” It’s still not known how much data was used for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in total, however we know that The Way of Water used 18.5 petabytes of data.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Owen Teague as Noa, Freya Allen as Mae, Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar, Peter Macon as Raka and William H. Macy as Trevathan. The film was directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) and is the fourth film in the latest modern era of the Planet of the Apes franchise.

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