6 Things You Didn't Know About Planet of the Apes

Luke Owen celebrates the release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with six things you didn’t know about the franchise…The apes are back on the big screen with Matt Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes [read our 2 ★★★★★ reviews here and here] and to celebrate, let’s look back at the franchise.Originally released in 1968, Planet of the Apes has spawned 4 sequels, a live-action TV show, a cartoon series and two reboots, one of which got a sequel and the other was garbage.Seriously, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes is dreadful.With a history that spans over 40 years, there is some much rich history to delve into and this is just a small taste of this great franchise’s facts.So let’s take a look at what we can learn. Stop the Planet of the Apes – I want to get off!1. The original movie was written by Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight ZonePlanet of the Apes was based on the French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle, the rights to which were bought by Arthur P. Jacobs before the book was even published. Jacobs then brought on The Twilight Zone creator and lead writer Rod Serling to pen the script.Serling’s biggest contribution to the adaptation was the now iconic ending where Taylor comes across the Statue of Liberty to realise he’s been on Earth all along (spoilers). According to reports and rumours, Boulle was unhappy with this change but eventually came round to the idea.In an interesting connection to The Twilight Zone, the idea of someone’s sleep chamber being broken and dying while in hibernation, was used in the Season Two episode The Rip Van Winkle Caper.Planet of the Apes often feels like a Twilight Zone movie with its social commentary masked by a science fiction veil (something the show thrived on) and its twist ending. Someone even re-edited the movie to look like a Twilight Zone episode, including Rod Serling narration!2. There was a video game planned in 1983During the early 80s, the home video game market was buzzing. The Atari 2600 had brought arcade gaming into your living room and seemingly every company was trying to get in on the act. Unlike today where there three choices to play games, the early 80s provided countless options to take home.By 1983, the Planet of the Apes franchise had been dead and buried with the last entry being Battle for the Planet of the Apes ten years prior. However, 20th Century Fox were keen to make a game because the demand for video games was out there.Planet of the Apes would see you play as Taylor from the first movie exploring the ape’s world. The screens would include deserts, forests, the ape’s village, river crossing and the Statue of Liberty ending.Sadly, the industry imploded. The infamous video game crash of 1983 meant that the Planet of the Apes game was never released. However, a prototype of the game was unearthed in 1999 under the name Alligator People and then released (with permission by the creators) in 2002 renamed Revenge of the Apes.Watch a video of the game below:3. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed on for a Planet of the Apes movie in the 90sEver since the mid-80s, there were plans to re-launch the Planet of the Apes franchise. And while none of these plans ever came through until Tim Burton’s awful 2001 remake, there was a period in the 90s where it looked like it was going to happen – with Arnold Schwarzenegger!Titled Return of the Apes, the movie was set in the near future and saw Dr Will Robinson travel back in time to the start of the ape/human war to discover a cure for a disease that is wiping out humanity.At the time, Fox president Peter Chernin said that it was “the best script I have ever read” and the movie was put into production with a list of directors including Oliver Stone, Chuck Russell, James Cameron and Chris Columbus looking to helm the project. Schwarzenegger signed on to play Robinson in 1994.Sadly, the movie feel into production woes, mainly over the tone of the film. Some wanted Return of the Apes to be like The Terminator while others wanted it to be like The Flintstones so they could make toys. As it stands, we will never see Arnie in an Apes movie.Can you imagine if they had him do the infamous Charlton Heston line?4. Charlton Heston tried to kill the franchisePlanet of the Apes was a big success for 20th Century Fox, so of course there was plans to make a sequel. The studio were not keen on Rod Serling’s pitches so they hired the novel’s writer Pierre Boulle, who drafted a movie called Planet of Men in which Taylor would lead an uprising of humans against the apes.However, Charlton Heston was not keen to return for the sequel – and looked for a way to kill his character and the franchise. The compromise was to re-write the script, now titled Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which saw another astronaut looking for Taylor and discovering an underground race of mutants who worship the bomb.Heston agreed to feature in the movie if it would be shot in a two week period, his pay went to charity and his character was killed off. His last wish was discussed in the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes where Heston said, “Why don’t I just set off this bomb and destroy the world. That’s the end of the sequels”.Taylor did set off the bomb, but it wouldn’t end the sequels. They would have to prise those from Fox’s cold dead hands.5. James Franco was supposed to die in Rise of the Planet of the ApesAt the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Will finds Caesar in the forest and asks him to come home. When he responds, “Caesar is home”, Will leaves him and it assumed (and then confirmed in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) that Will died with the rest of the human race due to the disease spread.However, this was not the original ending.The ending that Rupert Wyatt filmed and edited was to see Will and Caesar doing the “Caesar is home” line but then the army show up and open fire. Will jumps in the way and takes the bullets for Caesar.However, only a one month before the film was to be released, minds were changed and the desicion was made for Will to survive. This mean that James Franco and Andy Serkis had to re-shoot the scene.Not sure which ending is better to be honest.6. The ending to Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes “isn’t supposed to make sense”Sigh. The ending of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes sucks.For those who haven’t seen it, Marky Mark Wahlberg goes through an electrical storm and lands on the Planet of the Apes where he goes to war with the apes, in particular general Thade. When Marky Mark goes back to Earth through the same storm, he lands at the Lincoln Memorial Statue only to see the head has been replaced with Thade’s and then a swarm of policeman show up to reveal they are all apes.A lot of the hate against the movie has been because of the ending.Tim Roth, who played Thade, said “I cannot explain that ending. I have seen it twice and I don’t understand anything.” Helena Bonham Carter, who played Ari, defended it saying, “I thought it made sense, kind of. I don’t understand why everyone went, ‘Huh?’ It’s all a time warp thing. He’s gone back and he realizes Thade’s beat him there.”It doesn’t make sense, but apparently that was the idea. Tim Burton said on the DVD commentary that the ending “isn’t supposed to make sense” and it was left open so they had the options for sequels. However, when asked if he would do another movie, Burton said he’d rather “jump out a window”.That puts a rest to that I suppose.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ZJ0F8Ik9ELuke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.