At New York Comic-Con 2016, Reeves explained that he and Bomback were influenced by many films before writing. He said, "One of the first things that Mark and I did because we had just finished Dawn was that we decided to watch a million movies. We decided to do what people fantasize what Hollywood screenwriters get to do but no one actually does. We got Fox to give us a theater and we watched movie after movie. We watched every Planet of the Apes movie, war movies, westerns, Empire Strikes Back... We just thought, 'We have to pretend we have all the time in the world,' even though we had limited time. We got really inspired."[41] According to Reeves, the treacherous apes being nicknamed "donkeys" is both a reference to the video game character Donkey Kong and the fact that they are used as "pack mules".[42]
The novel is a satire that follows French journalist Ulysse Mérou, who participates in a voyage to a distant planet where speechless, animalistic humans are hunted and enslaved by an advanced society of apes. The ape species are sorted into classes: the gorillas are police officers, the chimpanzees are scientists, and the orangutans are politicians. Eventually, Mérou discovers that humans once dominated the planet until their complacency allowed the more industrious apes to overthrow them. The story's central message is that human intelligence is not a fixed quality and could atrophy if taken for granted.[1][2] Boulle considered the novel one of his minor works, though it proved to be a bestseller. British author Xan Fielding translated it into English; it was published in the United Kingdom as Monkey Planet and in the United States as Planet of the Apes.[3]
War For The Planet Of The Apes (English) 2 Movie 7 video fantasy kingdo
Heston played 20th-century American astronaut George Taylor, who travels to a strange planet where intelligent apes dominate mute, primitive humans. Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall played the sympathetic chimpanzees Zira and Cornelius, and Linda Harrison portrayed Taylor's love interest, Nova. Maurice Evans played the villain, orangutan Minister of Science Dr. Zaius.[14] The finale, in which Taylor comes upon a ruined Statue of Liberty and realizes he has been on Earth all along, became the series's defining scene and one of the most iconic images in 1960s film.[15] Planet of the Apes was released on February 8, 1968, and was a smash success with both critics and audiences. It was one of the year's 10 biggest money-makers in North America, taking in an estimated $22 million (nearly four times its budget) and earned rave reviews.[16][17] John Chambers received an honorary Oscar at the 41st Academy Awards for his make-up effects, the first ever given to a make-up artist.[13] Jerry Goldsmith's score and Morton Haack's costume design also earned Oscar nominations.[18] Fox approached Jacobs and Abrahams about filming a sequel. Though they had not made the film with sequels in mind, its success led them to consider the prospect.[19]
The story follows Franciscus's character, an astronaut who, while searching for Taylor, inadvertently follows him into the future. After encountering the apes from the first film, Brent finds Taylor imprisoned by a colony of subterranean human mutants who worship an ancient nuclear bomb. Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans and Linda Harrison returned as Zira, Zaius and Nova.[27] David Watson replaced Roddy McDowall as Cornelius, as McDowall was unavailable due to a scheduling conflict.[28] James Gregory played gorilla General Ursus and Paul Richards played mutant leader Méndez. The film opened on May 26, 1970.[27] Unlike its predecessor, Beneath was poorly reviewed; critics typically regard it as the worst of the Apes sequels other than the last one, Battle for the Planet of the Apes.[29] Nonetheless, it was a major box office hit, nearing the original's numbers. Despite a conclusion depicting the planet's nuclear destruction, Fox requested another sequel, creating a series.[30][31]
Battle follows Caesar as he leads the apes and their human subjects after a devastating war that destroyed much of the planet. He contends with both an attack by radiation-scarred human mutants and a coup attempt as he attempts to build a better society for both apes and humans. McDowall returned as Caesar and Severn Darden returned as Kolp. Paul Williams played the orangutan Virgil, Austin Stoker played MacDonald (the brother of Hari Rhodes' character) and Claude Akins played the gorilla general Aldo. John Huston played the orangutan Lawgiver in a frame narrative.[49] The film opened on May 2, 1973. It made a profit over production costs, but received poor reviews from critics, who regard it as the weakest of the five films.[50]
The plot concerns three American astronauts, Bill Hudson (Tom Williams), Jeff Allen (Austin Stoker, who played MacDonald in Battle) and Judy Franklin (Claudette Nevins), who inadvertently journey to Earth's far future. They find the world populated by three groups: mute humans who inhabit desert caves, subterranean human "Underdwellers" fashioned after the mutants of Beneath and civilized apes who subjugate the humans. Through the show, the astronauts become increasingly involved in the planet's affairs and in defending the humans against an ape invasion. The cast featured characters based on those from the previous films and TV series, including Nova (Nevins again), General Urko (Henry Cordin), Zira (Philippa Harris), Cornelius (Edwin Mills) and Dr. Zaius (Richard Blackburn).[62] NBC broadcast 13 episodes between September 6 and November 29, 1975. The show did not achieve particularly strong ratings. The network considered producing a second three-episode season to complete the storyline, but this never materialized.[63]
After the collapse of the Stone-Hayes project, Fox brought on Chris Columbus to develop a new Apes concept. Columbus hired Sam Hamm to write a screenplay taking elements from Boulle's novel and various unused treatments. In Hamm's script, an ape astronaut from a distant planet unleashes a devastating virus on Earth. Scientists go to the astronaut's planet, where apes hunt humans; they locate a cure but return to find Earth overrun by simians. Schwarzenegger remained attached, but Fox found the script underwhelming. Columbus left the project in 1995 after his mother's death and James Cameron stepped in to produce. Cameron intended to go in a "very different direction" with the script, but following the critical and financial success of his film Titanic, he dropped out of the project. Fox approached a series of directors to take over, without success.[68]
The film stars Mark Wahlberg as astronaut Leo Davidson, who accidentally travels through a wormhole to a distant planet where talking apes enslave humans. He leads a human revolt and upends ape civilization by discovering that the apes evolved from the normal Earth primates who had accompanied his mission and had arrived on the planet years before. Helena Bonham Carter played chimpanzee Ari, while Tim Roth played the human-hating chimpanzee General Thade. The film received mixed reviews; most critics believed it failed to compare to the original. Much of the negative commentary focused on the confusing plot and twist ending, though many reviewers praised the special effects.[70][71] The film succeeded at the box office, taking in $362 million worldwide.[72] Fox had initially hoped for a sequel, but the difficult production left Burton unenthusiastic about participating, and the film failed to generate enough interest for the studio to pursue a follow-up.[69]
The series' impact has extended to the political sphere, and groups of various leanings have employed its themes and imagery in their discourse.[175] The phrase "planet of the apes" has been used for an overturning of the political or racial status quo.[176] Eric Greene writes that it is especially popular among racial nationalists and reactionaries of different stripes.[177] According to Greene, white supremacists liken minority advancement to the films' world in which supposed "inferiors" seize control, while black nationalists subvert the reference to celebrate the "racial apocalypse"; in this spirit, gangsta rap group Da Lench Mob titled their 1994 album Planet of da Apes. Greene writes that these uses invert the anti-racist message of the films.[178] Planet's final image of the ruined Statue of Liberty has become a common political reference; for example, Greenpeace used it in an advertising campaign against nuclear testing. The series' themes and imagery have been invoked in political discussions on topics as varied as 1960s culture, urban decay, contemporary wars, and gun violence.[179] 2ff7e9595c
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