Written by Tom Deehan on Oct 20, 2015. Posted in Production News

War for the Planet of the Apes begins filming in Vancouver

The latest film in the Planet of the Apes reboot series, War for the Planet of the Apes, has begun filming in the Canadian city of Vancouver.

Moving away from the human-centric storyline of its source material, the current series follows the life of a Caesar, a common chimpanzee played by Andy Serkis via motion capture technology. After being injected with a special serum, Caesar’s intelligence starts to rival that of humans.

Director Matt Reeves took to Twitter October 17^th to officially announce that filming had commenced. The tweet also included the first image from the set, which has fans speculating that the film will follow a similar storyline to the original 1968 adaptation starring Charlton Heston.

This is not the first time the series had headed to Canada for filming. The two previous entries, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, used Vancouver as a double for San Francisco.

Vancouver has enticed many productions to film on location, particularly with the offer of a staggering 30% tax rebate. Due to its geographical location, Vancouver holds an appeal for American productions amidst competition from the United States to offer better incentives. Savannah, Georgia is the most recent example of an area offering additional incentives alongside what is already provided at the state level.

Walt Disney Pictures’ latest live action blockbuster Tomorrowland was filmed on location in Vancouver, as well as The Walking Dead spinoff which recently concluded its first season, Fear the Walking Dead, doubling for Los Angeles.

War for the Planet of the Apes is expected to be released July 2017.