Update on the New PLANET OF THE APES Film

If you haven't heard yet, 20th Century has been looking at rebooting the classic franchise Planet of the Apes. Word broke not too long ago that this reboot was scrapped, but it looks like that's no longer the case. Of course we know they already tried it once with Tim Burton and Mark Wahlberg but that didn't really work out unfortunately, the movie was awful. But they haven't given up on the franchise. In fact, according to Vulture, the studio is more determined than ever to get it made and they brought it to producer Peter Chernin to develop the film, under its code-named "Caesar."

Scott Frank (Minority Report) was previously attached to write and direct the film for producer Scott Rudin. Fox has recently hired writer Jamie Moss (Street Kings) to pretty much rewrite Frank's version, and it's also reported that the original writers, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, were brought back to polish up the dialogue.

Apparently Frank's script...

...showed how genetic experiments on apes led to their evolutionary eclipse of humans. 'Caesar' refers to the genetically altered leader of the simian rebellion, so dubbed because the ape was capable of grand strategic thinking on par with Julius Caesar. The 'Caesar' code name also foreshadowed the script's plot: Like the actual Julius Caesar, the ape begins a (wait for it ... ) guerrilla war and emerges the emperor of the known world.

Of course the studio wanted to go in a different direction, a lot of the time the studio and talent just can't see eye to eye on things. Which is unfortunate, because I tend to side with the artists' vision over the studio's. Because of these creative differences the writer/director did not want to bow down to what the studio wanted, thus a new director is expected to be hired soon.

The producer of the new Apes film, Peter Cherin, was actually head of Fox Entertainment back in 1992, and during that time he tried to revive The Planet of the Apes franchise with Oliver Stone as the executive producer. The film was to be called Return of the Apes, the film that would center on a geneticist, possibly played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who time-travels back to the Paleolithic Era, where he must help humans win a war against highly evolved apes and protect a young girl whose genes will ultimately save mankind from a plague.

Could you imagine Schwarzenegger in a Planet of the Apes movie back in '92? It would have been incredibly awesome or a complete bomb.

What do you all think about The Planet of the Apes being rebooted again?

 

GeekTyrant Homepage