SAN DIEGO — Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. Andy Serkis — Gollum from Lord of the Rings and the titular simian from the 2005 King Kong remake — plays the main character Caesar, who just happens to be an ape. The film is directed by Rupert Wyatt, who also directed Dark Days. James Franco plays a sympathetic scientist.

Serkis and Wyatt stopped by the Wired Cafe at Comic-Con International to talk about the new film and how it’s been updated for today’s audience.

“It’s a timeless story, I think that’s why it’s always worked as a franchise … there’s something kind of wonderful about the ‘what if?’ scenario that another species on this planet [becomes] the alphas of our planet,” said Serkis.

We ask them about performance capture and story versus technology in this video.