Blu-ray Will Show Side by Side

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” director Wes Ball thinks it’s high time that Wētā FX got its due for its innovative simian performance capture animation. So he intends to peel back the curtain for the first time on the upcoming Blu-ray release. As first reported on the “Ape Nation” podcast, Ball will offer the entire movie, which takes place 300 years after the reign of Andy Serkis’ Caesar, as a bonus feature in a before- and-after comparison of raw dailies and completed VFX.

“I think VFX is too much maligned…when it’s a tool like anything else,” Ball told IndieWire. “So I think to show the absolute peak of artistry and what these artists actually do is not some button that says, ‘Make Apes.’ These are true storytellers at work here. I want to show that off and celebrate it.”

This also might help rectify the VFX Oscar snubbing of Wētā for the “Apes” franchise, despite the fact that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand studio won two Oscars for the “Avatar” films (anchored by the game-changing performance-captured characters of Pandora).

The director has invited Wētā VFX supervisor Erik Winquist to join him in this rare opportunity to help explain the performance capture process, and might add editor Dan Zimmerman to the discussion as well. “Because the post process on this movie is really unique,” he added. “It’s difficult and frustrating and crazy complicated.”

Journalists got a taste of what Ball has…