WTF Happened to Planet of the Apes?

for most of us the Planet of the Apes movies have always been around spanning five decades and 10 movies and still going it's hard to imagine a world without that race of hyper intelligent simeons and their Everlasting war against man we take this extended Universe for granted but it wasn't always that way it probably isn't hard to believe that at one time the concept of a world populated by talking apes was not considered a box office draw and if it hadn't been for the determination of a few True Believers in the material we may never have gotten one movie never mind an entire franchise Let's Travel back to the beginnings of Dr Zas and the monkey bunch and find out what the happened to this movie we're going back as far as 1963 when French author Pierre bull released his novel monkey planet in the book a couple of men journeyed to a distant world where they encounter a race of civilized Apes who dress talk and behave just like humans it was thoughtful and compelling science fiction supposedly inspired by an incident at a zoo when the author found himself fascinated by the surprisingly human-like behavior of an ape a press agent turned producer named Arthur Jacobs got hold of the novel before its publication in 1963 and he saw potential for a feature film Jacobs pitched the project all around Hollywood but couldn't get any Studios to bite unsurprisingly the idea of a movie where apes walked and talked like humans seemed a bit ridiculous to most of the majors in town to help sell the concept Jacobs commissioned dozens of sketches which helped provide tantalizing visuals for the Skeptics ironically one of those Skeptics was author Pierre bull himself who never envisioned a film when writing monkey Planet despite the many images that title alone evokes obviously a screenplay was needed if the project was ever going to be taken seriously by a studio so Jacobs enlisted Rod sirling the genius behind the Twilight Zone to translate Fool's work into a script sirling labored away for over a year on the screenplay allegedly writing more than 30 drafts until he could go no further sirling kept most of Bull's ideas intact except for one ingenious concept of his own in the book The Monkey planet of the title is another planet millions of light years from Earth it was serling's Pitch to reveal and here's a spoiler if you're one of the rare few people who somehow missed that iconic final image during the last few decades that the entire story has been taking place on a distant future Earth all along ever the realist about man's capacity for war serling's idea was that human civilization finally killed itself off with an atomic bomb leaving Apes to emerge as the dominant species over several centuries at one point Jacobs got the interest of a big Studio Warner Brothers but they eventually got cold feet because they thought the movie would cost at least $10 million to produce which would be around $90 million back in those days after Warner's drop it Arthur Jacobs found himself back at square one putting on his press agent hat the producer came up with the idea of packaging the script with a star which would make the project more appealing to a tentative Studio Jacob sent the book screenplay and over a 100 sketches to Charlton hon at the time one of the most famous actors on the planet hon was won over by the vision Jacobs had delivered and agreed to be a part of it now Jacobs had a project he could sell even more beneficial to his cause would be having a director on board and hon suggested Franklin J Schaffner with whom he just made a historical epic called the warlord Schaffner saw the potential in the idea but agreed the budget was going to be too big for a studio to take on with a new writer Michael Wilson who had written Oscar winning films like Bridge on the River qu and Lawrence of Arabia while he was blacklisted Schaffner reimagined Bull's original vision and made the ape Planet more primitive instead of the Apes driving cars and living in apartment buildings they would ride horses and live in caves this would considerably cut costs while still keeping the heart of the story intact Jacobs had just produced a couple of films for 20th Century Fox and brought this new version of Planet of the Apes to Studio head Richard zanik who was intrigued but of course not 100% sold on the concept zanic wanted to see proof that the Apes would not look laughable and more importantly that actors would be able to perform their roles while covered with elaborate makeup and masks using script pages from one of Rod serling's drafts Schaffner and Jacobs shot footage with Charlton hon as the lead human astronaut Taylor along with with movie Legend Edward G Robinson as Dr Zas and a young James Brolin as one of the Apes model Linda Harrison who was then Richard xanx mistress was also featured as an ape although ultimately she would play Taylor's human love interest Nova the makeup was done by John Chambers who during World War II made prosthetic Limbs and facial Restorations for wounded and disfigured soldiers using the same Concepts he had engineered for survivors of the war Chambers brought his talents to Hollywood and became one of the town's most in demand special makeup designers coming up with Mr Spock's ears in Star Trek among many other notable credits once zanic saw the screen test he gave Planet of the Apes a green light some 3 years after Arthur Jacobs had first pitched the book to the studios the film was given a budget of $5.8 million with a cool million of that going toward chambers's makeup Department the production utilized somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 crew members to work in various costume art and makeup departments supposedly there were so many people working on Planet of the Apes that several other Hollywood Productions were delayed until the crew became available making things even more hairy and not in the good way was the fact that fox slashed the shooting schedule by 10 days just a few weeks before filming obviously lending the already difficult production an even greater sense of urgency director Franklin Schaffner was committed to populating his movie with veteran actors the role of zero was offered to the legendary ingred Bergman but she turned it down years later her daughter Isabella rosolini would revealed that declining Planet of the Apes was one of the biggest regrets of her mother's career Edward G Robinson was prepared to play Dr Zas but unfortunately he became too sick to perform the part although he would later join Charlton hon in another sci-fi classic soent green Robinson's final role instead Dr Zas went to Maurice Evans perhaps then best known for his role on the hit sitcom Bewitched the character of sympathetic scientist Cornelius was offered directly to English born actor Rody McDowell while cornelius's wife zero was played by Kim Hunter an Oscar winner for a street car Named Desire as previously noted Linda Harrison would play primitive human Nova although sexy star s like Raquel Welch and Ursula Andress were first offered the role the actors playing the Apes were in for a bit more than they bargained for when production commenced in May of 1967 initially applying the makeup took around 6 hours but on a good day it would improve to only take three naturally it was hot during the summer in California and wearing the heavy makeup made things even more uncomfortable the actors found they had to overact with their facial expressions to provide emotion to their characters and they had to keep their faces moving constantly so that the makeup appliances wouldn't stiffen up worst of all they could not take the makeup off until filming was finished for the day meaning they had to eat or drink most of their meals through straws and as many of the actors were smokers cigarette holders were necessary to indulge their habits actress Kim Hunter seemed to have the worst time with the makeup she founded claustrophobic to the point where she needed to take volume every day before it was applied to her face she eventually stopped eating altogether during filming hours obviously resulting in a very stressful shoot and while Charlton hon was not in heavy makeup he didn't have it much easier in dark contrast to the well-known Noble and heroic characters he was known for like benur and Moses Taylor was constantly being beaten down by his oppressors the character is often semi or fully nude meaning the hot summer sun was always baking the actor's back and he had to wear rubber booties on his feet to keep them from getting too damaged during Taylor's many running scenes adding more misery was that hon suffered with the flu for most of the shoot there was a consideration of delaying the shoot for a while so the actor could recover but Schaffner thought Hon's bedraggled state would add to the character's torture when Taylor screams his Immortal line take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape Hon's voice was genuinely raspy from his illness getting sprayed with a water hose made his poor condition even worse but you have to admit the actor was a hell of a trooper and gave a terrific performance the first scenes shot for the film were the early sequences with Taylor and his fellow astronauts Crash Landing in The Strange New World this section was shot in Utah and as it was well over 100° every day members of both cast and crew were passing out regularly even shaftner supposedly hit the deck one afternoon the bulk of the film was shot on Fox's Malibu Ranch set the architecture for the ape city was inspired by the Turkish region of capid doia famous for its unique rock formations A peculiar ritual seemed to happen amongst the actors during shooting much like in the film The three separate species of Apes would segregate themselves into their own groups with chimps hanging out with other chimps orangutans sticking with other orangutans and gorillas only eating with other gorillas most of the actors probably didn't even realize they were doing this although Kim Hunter said she intentionally didn't spend any time with the orangutans because in the world of the movie that was how the class system was divided of course we can't talk about Planet of the Apes without discussing its climax among the most famous in film history though there were several possible endings scripted The Producers stuck with the one Rod Serling conceived that Taylor would learn he's actually on Earth after seeing the destroyed remains of the Statue of Liberty shot on Zuma Beach in Malibu the ending was only revealed to to specific cast and crew members it was intentionally omitted from the majority of scripts because Fox did not want the surprise leaking the final image in the film where you see half of Lady Liberty in all her glory is the work of a mat painting but the physical tease of the statue was actually built some 70 ft above the beach the head and the torch were constructed out of papier-mâché and set above a large scaffold where the camera could move past them and cheat the actual size film history done simply although apparently it was difficult getting anyone to actually climb the Towering structure production on Planet of the Apes wrapped in August 1967 having taken three very hot months to finish supposedly the subsequent sequels to the film were all shot during the fall and winter months with the producers Having learned their lesson after enduring the stifling summer production when Planet of the Apes was released in April of 1968 the movie was an immediate hit and ultimately grossed a very impressive $32 million in the US a fair profit considering its 5 million budget the movie was nominated for two Oscars best costume design and best score for Jerry gold Goldsmith and it won a special honorary award for John Chambers Splendid makeup achievements naturally a sequel was quickly planned and 2 years after the original Beneath the Planet of the Apes was released three more sequels followed for three consecutive years although the budgets and profits were inevitably shrinking in 1974 a Planet of the Apes TV show premiered on CBS though it did not prove successful and ended after only 14 episodes that was followed by a 1975 animated series called Return to the Planet of the Apes but that also lasted only a short while it started to seem like the Apes were finally going to go extinct of course we all know they wouldn't stay dead for long after years of false starts a remake of the classic film was directed by Tim Burton and released in July of 2001 complete with its own impressive makeup and attempt at a twist ending while that movie was a non-starter from a franchise perspective a rebooted series of films began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes which would successfully reignite The public's fascination with the series still many believe the one that started it all has yet to be topped with its mix of social commentary and rousing action suspense and drama it remains a unique picture unlike any that came before it and it has been referenced in countless movies TV shows and other fiction that follow I can Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr what began as a far out idea that had plenty of doubters became one of the most iconic brands in cinema seems like this particular Monkey Business is very good business [Music] [Applause] indeed [Music] oh

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Id: IZMj-U9nYDA

Length: 12min 13sec (733 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024