Gary Oldman explains ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ role, plot details

Fans haven’t gotten a lot of details on 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Now, in a recent interview with MTV, however, Gary Oldman dropped some new details about both his character and the plot of the film.

“He’s the sort of designated leader if you will of this community of those that were lucky enough to survive the simian flu, the disease, and then the ensuing social uprising from it….So they’re sort of survivors, and he was a police officer, so he’s more of the kind of elected leader of this (group). And they need 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.”

More of a plot point and spoiler Oldman adds that “We believed they were all completely fire-bombed and wiped out…He’s experienced a great loss, personally, and there’s only one answer for him and that’s to wipe them out. I see him as a sort of the hero of the piece.”

The story picks up a decade after Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Oldman says director Matt Reeves wanted to further explore the human dynamic of the film before bringing the focus fully to the apes.

“Matt Reeves was more interested in not just keeping the franchise alive but he wanted to make it more of a human story, he wanted to explore what had happened and keep it more focused to the human side of it before the story becomes the Planet of the Apes as we know it from the first one, from the original.”

Story: A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.

The film also stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Enrique Murciano, Kirk Acevedo and Judy Greer.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes arrives in theaters July 11, 2014.