Keri Russell talks Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Actress Keri Russell is one of several new faces in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The film follows on from 2011 hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes and is directed by Cloverfield's Matt Reeves.

Keri joins Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and a returning Andy Serkis, who has donned the motion capture suit once again to play lead ape Caesar. The film is set after the events of the first movie, in which humanity has been all but destroyed by the deadly simian flu. It takes a director with real vision to bring this post-apocalpytic world to the big screen but Keri says we can expect great things from Reeves.

"He has such a creative voice and a present sensitivity," Keri explained in an interview with Collider. "I think that’s the only reason I was in a movie like that. I don’t get to be in big blockbuster summer movies."

The film in fact reunites Keri and the director – she snagged a Golden Globe for playing the title character in high school TV series Felicity, developed by Reeves and J.J. Abrams. Keri says that in spite of the film's epic scope, it's underscored by Reeves' innovative touches, not least when it comes to the cast.

"He brought me and Kodi [Smit-McPhee] and Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke," she says. "He brought this group of very not summer blockbuster actors together."

It sounds to us like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will be infused with the same sense of intelligence and craft that marked out Rise – what do you think?

The film is released on 18 July.