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| The novel that began it all. |
In 1963, French author Pierre Boulle released a
novel entitled La Planète des Singes after being
inspired by the humanlike expressions of gorillas at a zoo he visited. In the
story, French journalist Ulysse Merou journeyed to another planet where
animal-like humans were hunted and enslaved by an advanced society of apes. Humans
had once ruled that world until they grew complacent and allowed the apes to
overthrow them and assume control. The novel was a commentary on the failings
of human nature and the overreliance on technology; stressing the point that
human intelligence needed to be actively maintained. The novel became a hit and
was translated into English. In the United Kingdom, it was retitled as Monkey Planet, while in the United
States it was called Planet of the Apes.
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| Planet of the Apes concept art. |
Boulle’s literary agent, Alain Bernheim, introduced the
novel to American film producer Arthur
P. Jacobs. Jacobs had just begun a new company, APJAC
Productions, and was looking for new properties to adapt. Jacobs took
interest in the novel and acquired the rights immediately. He would spend the
next three years trying to convince filmmakers and studios to take on the
project, as the estimated $10 million price tag to make it scared them off.
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| Even if you've never seen the film, you've likely seen this scene in one of many parodies. |
Jacobs hired Rod Serling to write the script.
Serling introduced Cold War
themes to the story and created the twist ending of the planet actually being a
future Earth after humans destroyed themselves with nuclear warfare. Securing Charlton Heston to star in the
film landed them Franklin J.
Schaffner to direct. After a screen test with Heston, 20th Century Fox was convinced
the film could succeed and took on the picture. However, Fox insisted on
changes to bring the budget down to $5.8 million. Michael Wilson, who had adapted
Boulle’s novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai, was hired to rewrite Serling’s script,
making the ape society more primitive to save on special effects. Serling’s
ending, however, was maintained.
The film featured Heston as 20th
Century American astronaut George Taylor
who wound up on a planet where primitive humans were dominated by intelligent
apes; in particular by the sinister orangutan science minister, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans). Of course, not
all apes were against humanity as they had sympathizers in chimpanzees Zira (Kim Hunter)
and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall). The special ape
make-up effects were produced by John
Chambers. The film was released on February 8, 1968 and became a critical
and commercial success. Two months after its release, a sequel called Beneath the Planet of the Apes entered production, which focused on another astronaut, Brent (played by James Franciscus and whose full
name wasn’t revealed until the movie novelization), following Taylor to the
planet. The sequel was released in May of 1970.
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| Beneath's movie poster. |
Despite being poorly reviewed, Beneath earned almost as much as the
original; leading Fox to request additional sequels. Three more movies
followed: Escape From, Conquest of, and Battle for, each made on a
significantly decreasing budget. The series took the characters of Zira and
Cornelius into the past where they had a child, Caesar (also
McDowell), who would rise up to lead the ape rebellion against oppressive
humans and try to build an integrated society of peace.
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| The main characters of Apes: Galen, Burke and Virdon. |
When television broadcasts of the
films earned high ratings, Jacobs planned to produce an hour long live-action
series based on the franchise in 1971, but shelved the project when Fox
requested another film after Conquest.
However, Jacobs died in 1973, leaving Fox executive Stan Hough to take over
production of the series entitled Planet of the Apes. The series focused on astronauts Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Peter Burke (James Naughton) being shunted to
the future roughly 900 years before the events of the first movie. There, they
befriended chimpanzee Galen
(McDowell) and proceeded to aid both humans and apes while avoiding the
authorities led by General Urko (Mark Lenard). The series was
picked up by CBS in 1974, but because they
decided to gear it towards children and due to its repetitive nature, the show
earned poor ratings and was cancelled after 14 episodes.
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| Lights! Camera! Ape-tion! |
NBC
decided to try and create their own adaptation of the franchise, but as a
cartoon on Saturday mornings. Contracting DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises to produce the series, they hired Johnny Quest co-creator Doug
Wildey to oversee its development. Wildey served as associate producer,
storyboard director and supervising director while drawing inspiration from
only the first two films to craft the world of the show. That world, without
the limitations of live-action production, became considerably more advanced
akin to what the original book had described. However, Wildey did have to
contend with NBC’s “Emulative Clause,” which stated that the series had to be
devoid of imitable behavior that a kid watching could duplicate and possibly
hurt themselves doing. This restricted the types of weaponry featured on the
show, which Wildey loaded with Howitzers after the
network decided they couldn’t imagine a six-year-old operating one.
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| Bill, Judy and Jeff meeting the future. |
Return
to the Planet of the Apes centered on astronauts Bill Hudson (Tom Williams
in early episodes, Richard Blackburn towards the end), Jeff Allen (Austin
Stoker, who played Mr. MacDonald in Battle),
and Judy Franklin (Claudette Nevins) as they ended up shunted forward in time from
1976 to 3979 and stranded in the ape-ruled future. Returning characters from
the franchise included General Urko (Henry Corden) as a sinister gorilla who
wanted to send all humans off-planet; orangutan scientific leader Dr. Zaius (Blackburn);
the primitive human female, Nova (Nevins); chimpanzee human sympathizers Zira
(Philippa Harris) and Cornelius (Corden); and Brent from the
second movie, given the first name “Ronald.”
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| The book that could change ape history forever. |
The series set itself apart from the live-action one by having ongoing subplots
while each episode’s main plot was relatively self-contained. For half the
series, Judy was a prisoner of the Underdwellers; a subterranean race of humans
that were based on the mutants from the second movie. Urko was relieved of
power by Zaius, although he still spent the remainder of the series going after
the humans. An old airplane was discovered that the astronauts had to keep out
of ape hands lest they learn about air combat. The astronauts also engaged on a
quest to find an ancient children’s book that would prove the theory of ape archaeologists
that man preceded the ape.
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| The astronauts meet Brent and Nova. |
Return to the Planet of the Apes debuted
on NBC on September 6, 1975 with music by Dean Elliott.
The series, written by Larry Spiegel, John Barrett, Jack Kaplan, Bruce Shelly
and John Strong,
was praised for its intelligent scripts; which were said to accurately capture
the tone of the film series. The highly detailed background artwork also received
critical recognition. Unfortunately, Depatie-Freleng’s cost-cutting measures
left viewers underwhelmed with the series; in particular, the constant reusing
of footage and the stiff animation techniques on characters. The often-wooden performance
of the voice actors also worked against the series. Poor ratings led the series
to be cancelled after a single season. NBC briefly considered allowing a second
season of three episodes to wrap up any lingering plot points, but ultimately
the idea was scrapped.
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| Despite all my rage I am still just a human in a cage. |
In 1976, Ballantine Books
published three volumes
adapting episodes of the series, written by William Rotsler and Donald J. Pfeil under the
house name of William Arrow. In March of 2006, the complete animated series was
released as part of Planet
of the Apes: the Ultimate DVD Collection.
It was then released on its own in a complete
collection that October.
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| Jack Kirby's concept sketch. |
Throughout the 1980s, Fox tried to resurrect the franchise several times
without much success. Amongst the many film attempts was another animated
series. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who had served
as producers on the live-action Apes series,
had just formed their Ruby-Spears
Productions and were interested in a sort of revival. Comic book legend Jack Kirby worked on concept
sketches for the series proposal, but it never materialized. Finally, Fox
wanted a new film for July of 2001 and was willing to offer considerable
creative control in exchange for the firm release date. The prospect attracted
director Tim Burton, but the deadline
and $100 million budget meant the script written by William Broyles, Jr. had to be
extensively rewritten and all aspects of production rushed. The film, a remake
of Planet of the Apes, was successful upon its release, but Burton was
disinterested in working on a sequel and it failed to generate enough interest
for Fox to go forward with plans for a new franchise.
In 2006, Rick Jaffa and
Amanda Silver took
inspiration from stories of apes raised as humans and came up with a new
concept focusing on the story of Caesar. After a
slow development period, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released in 2011 directed by Rupert Wyatt. The film was a
major success, and Fox immediately commissioned a sequel. In 2014, Dawn of
the Planet of the Apes directed
by Matt Reeves was released
and received equal acclaim. Confident in Dawn
before it was even released, Fox greenlit a third movie in the franchise
titled War of the Planet of the Apes,
released in 2017. 7 years later, another sequel was released, the first since Disney’s
takeover of Fox, called Kingdom of the Planet of the
Apes.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2024.
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