Original Ending Revealed for RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - Concept Art
Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a great film, and it payed homage to several aspects of the original film that it was inspired by. One of them included Dodge Landon (Tom Felton) yelling "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" He also says, "It's a madhouse! A madhouse!" Thanks to Film Sketchr we have some concept art and information regarding an alternate ending to the film that would have offered another big nod to the original film.
The ending we saw to Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes saw Will Rodman's (James Franco) emotional release of Caesar into the forest. It was followed by a precursor of where the story would go when Caesar and his pack looked out over the city of San Francisco. Then during the film's credits scene, we see Rodman's neighbor/airline pilot become the second case of what would eventually be named the Simian Flu. This kicks off a series of events that leads to the world that we saw in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.
The original ending of the film envisioned an older, grizzled Caesar with war paint looking out over a burning New York City in a destroyed Statue of Liberty. Below you can see the concept art created by concept artist Brian Cunningham, along with a description of what is going on.
"That image is from a proposed end sequence that was cut from Rise Of The Apes [sic]. In that shot Caesar is going up the staircase inside a large building.
"....cut to... a second image we see an older tattooed Caesar looking out from twisted metal...
"pull back to reveal he's observing Manhattan on fire from the back of a badly damaged Statue of Liberty..... a nod the the Charlton Heston scene from the original."
There's no reason given as to why the scene was cut.