Comic-Con: 'Planet of the Apes' Star Says if Any Animal Could Take Over Planet, It Would Be Apes

Andy Serkis grabbed our attention as Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but the English actor has now taken on another role he said is a little more like himself – an ape named Caesar in the forthcoming FOX science fiction flick, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” And Serkis says he's convinced there is very little difference between a human and an ape.
“The branches of the tree somehow split and we evolved at different rates, but we are 97 percent the same. This is why the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise does fascinate and warrant a re-appraisal every few years. We do go through these cycles of looking at apes because they are our closest cousin, and we do judge our behavior against them,” Serkis told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column while promoting the film at the Comic Con International Convention in San Diego. “And if there were species to take over this planet, it would probably be them because they are so clever in their own right.”

Serkis has done his homework. The English-born actor actually drew on a real-life ape to prepare for his role channeling the primate.
“When you’re playing an ape you obviously learn ape behavior, but I based this character Caesar on a real ape called Oliver, who in the 1970s was known as a humanize because his behavior was very extraordinary and very human-like,” Serkis explained. “He would walk around, behave totally like a human being, so I based a lot on him.”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” stems from the wildly successful “Planet of the Apes” franchise and centers on San Francisco resident Will Rodman (James Franco), who is working on a cure for Alzheimer's by performing tests on apes. The first test subject is Serkis’s character Caesar. Rodman's “cure” genetically modifies Caesar, and spurns a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence. Soon its a battle to see which species will dominate the planet.
Director Rupert Wyatt is confident the film will resonate with American audiences.
“All films relate in some way to the world in which we live, this film certainly does that, and we earn our heroes,” he added. “We are living in a world of conflict and economic strife and in those times our heroes are vulnerable and not powerful, and Caesar is the perfect super hero in a bizarre sort of way.”