Gary Oldman Joins DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has added another lead in Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises).  The Mark Bomback script takes place 15 years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and finds humanity all but wiped out by the race of super-intelligent apes.  Part of the story centers on a group of scientists in San Francisco who are mounting a resistance against their new oppressors while Caesar (Andy Serkis) struggles to maintain dominance over his kingdom.  It’s looking like Oldman will play Dreyfus, the leader of a human colony in the sequel, due out May 23, 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

Reports of Oldman joining Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comes via CS.  Recently, Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In) joined the cast as two of the film’s leads, though their roles were not specified.  The sequel is expected to start filming this spring.

Oldman recently starred in John Hillcoat’s Lawless and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.  He’ll next be seen alongside Harrison Ford in Robert Luketic’s thriller Paranoia in which his character blackmails an ambitious young techie (Liam Hemsworth) into spying on a rival company.  That film will be followed by José Padilha’s reboot of RoboCop in which he’ll play Dr. Robert Norton.  Both pictures are currently filming.  Oldman will also star in Monster Butler, the Douglas Rath thriller based on the serial-killing con-man, Ray Fontaine, as played by Malcolm McDowell.

Be sure to get caught up on all of our continuing coverage for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes here.