Last week the scene was 1961 Greenwich Village as Jersey Avenue was converted to New York City’s MacDougal Street for the filming of the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” The charming set was replete with a faux Caffe Borgia, Minetta Tavern, and Cafe Wha?
Yesterday, the Hollywood vibe was decidedly less inviting along the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway in Liberty State Park, as three apes from a dystopian future gazed menacingly at the New York City skyline from atop their large horses.
Staring up at them in flesh left no doubt as to how Charlton Heston might have found himself the humiliated, caged, zoological curiosity of the ape-psychologist Zira. These are some bad-ass simians. Lest we want to find ourselves in the same dire straits, we might want to put off that little nuclear war.
Thankfully, these particular marauders were more concerned with a photoshoot to promote their upcoming film, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Even for apes, money comes first it seems.
Wikipedia has a good synopsis. “Nearly 300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), ape civilizations have emerged from the oasis to which Caesar led his fellow apes, while humans have regressed into a feral, primitive state. When the ape king Proximus Caesar, armed with weapons forged from lost human technologies, perverts Caesar’s teachings to enslave other clans, the chimpanzee hunter Noa embarks on a harrowing journey alongside a human girl named Mae to determine the future for apes and humans alike.”
The film opens on May 10.
In the meantime, we humans best chill.