Never mind any half-assed Planet of the Apes remake; we've discovered the monkey SF film we've been waiting for all along in the simian shape of War Monkeys. It's the next project from director Kevin Munroe and he's describing it as an updated Abbott and Costello crossed with Quentin Tarantino. Starring monkeys with guns. I know, I know; we're excited as well.Munroe - who earned his (questionable) chops directing the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie -told SciFi Wire about the project, which will see two slackers trapped in an Area 51-esque location over the holidays with only military-trained monkeys for company:
[I]t's basically like Aliens. But whenever I spoke to Cleve [Nettles, the writer], Cleve had a high concept, you know: It's ... sort of like if Tarantino wrote Gremlins. ... I was like, 'It's exactly it.' ... It's one of the things where the comedy is really pure, but the scares and the threats are all very real.
Although there will be some CGI in the movie, Munroe promises real monkeys with (almost) real guns:
One of the producers, Chris Patton, he calls me up and he says, ... 'I've got a lead on a guy who can train Rhesus monkeys.' ... [They] like to hold prop guns and wear helmets and stuff. And so there's going to be a mix of live [and puppets]. I'm a real big fan of prosthetics, sort of puppets and stuff, and we'll probably have a little bit of CGI, you know, like for whenever it makes sense and stuff. But I would love to do things sort of as practical as possible with it.
There is, as we all know, a fine line between genius and stupid. I just haven't worked out which side of that line this falls on. Munroe Talks War Monkeys, Etc. [SciFi Wire]