Planet of the Apes prequel confirmed: the apes will rise again

14 March 2010

John Howell

There have been a lot of ape productions over the last 40 years, none as powerful as the first Planet of the Apes film in 1968 that starred Charlton Heston and featured the unforgettable final scene of The Statue of Liberty rising from the sand and waves (watch a clip of the final scene on YouTube at the end of this article). Based on the Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boulle, first published in 1963, apart from the Heston classic, we’ve had Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1970, Escape from the Planet of the Apes in 1971, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes in 1972, Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973 and the television series’ Planet of the Apes in 1974 and an animated Return to the Planet of the Apes in 1975 (there is even a series of Planet of the Ape comics). You may also remember the less than average Planet of the Apes remake directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg in 2001 (personally I’m trying to forget the whole thing).

Now we hear that 20th Century Fox is having another stab at reinventing the franchise, with English director Rupert Wyatt a likely candidate to sit behind the camera. Wyatt will work on developing a script by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Wyatt last directed The Escapist, about a prisioner who decides to plan an escape when he discovers his daughter is near death.

According to CHUD, the story so far is called Caesar: Rise of the Apes, and focuses on genetic research. A doctor is working with monkeys trying to cure Alzheimers, a disease that afflicts his father. He attempts to develop a benign virus that can live in brain tissue and restore functionality. When his research is shut down, he's left with just one chimp, the child of his most promising subject. Young Caesar is incredibly intelligent for an ape, and over time continues to mutate and evolve, looking less like a chimp and moving from sign language to actual speech. Eventually Caesar leads an army of apes in an uprising just as a catastrophe strikes mankind.

CHUD also suggests that the film will be a direct prequel to the original film, rather than the 2001 remake, or any of the other offshoots that appeared in the 70s.

I find it hard to work up much enthusiasm for a new Planet of the Apes remake. The only thing that keeps me going is the memory of first watching that final scene in the original Planet of the Apes film when I was a kid, with Charlton Heston crying out in rage, disbelief and disgust: "We finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you. God damn you all to hell."

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