Back in January, the world learned that Fox still insisted on a new PLANET OF THE APES Movie. the project is now in the hands of producer Peter Chernin. Screenwriting team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver who originally worked on the draft have been invited back to polish the script. And now Deadlinehollywood said Rupert Wyatt who helmed the 2008 prison break movie The Escapist is going to helm the prequel…
That’s all there is to the info. Nothing else for now. I enjoyed The Escapist, it had a great emotional twist at the end that I didn’t see coming a mile away. I don’t know why Wyatt could bring to the table as far as PLANET OF THE APES goes but obviously Fox doesn’t wanna spend too much money on a famous director, the studio wants to play it safe.
but here’s a quick recap to get you up to date.. you don’t have to read the entire thing if you don’t give a sh*t about PLANET OF THE APES anymore… I don’t blame ya…
Scott Frank wrote a script code-named Caesar, 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 (whose own surname means “hairy” in Latin). The “Caesar” code name also foreshadowed the script’s plot: Just as the actual Julius Caesar set Rome on the path to the Roman Empire, the experimental ape’s escape sets in motion his fellow hirsute hominids’ (wait for it … ) guerrilla war and subsequent dominance.*
The studio, however, wanted to pursue a different tack than Frank, and the writer-director was unwilling to change direction, according to a production source. As Rudin was only on board because Frank had asked him to serve as producer (the two had enjoyed working together on Jodie Foster’s Little Man Tate twenty years ago), he left as well. But now that it’s been handed to Chernin, the presumed-dead project is red hot again.
CHUD has got its hands on some SPOILER! the story of this prequel is currently titled CAESAR: RISE OF THE APES which, master blogger Devin says, surprisingly ties directly into the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. You can read the rest OVER THERE but here are some bulletpoints..
- The script opens with poachers capturing apes in the wild. The scene is structured to recall the apes capturing humans at the beginning of Planet of the Apes.
- Caesar’s mother is named Bright Eyes, which is what Dr. Zira called Colonel Taylor in the original film.
- There are other name homages. A female scientist is named Stewart, which was the name of the female Icarus crewmember. Dodge and Landon, also Icarus crewmembers in the original film, appear as names, but in very different roles than in Planet of the Apes. Dodge is a bad guy, in fact. There’s a chimp named Cornelia, a play on Cornelius from the original film, a chimp named Franklin, a play on Apes director Franklin Schaffner, and an orangutan named Maurice, homaging Maurice Evans, who played Dr. Zaius.
- At one point Caesar is sent to a wild animal park and lives in a monkey house. There we see that the original film’s social structure, where chimps, orangutans and gorillas have their own strata, is in place. Caesar manages to unite them all, though.
- Caesar’s slow mutation explains why the apes in Planet of the Apes are bigger than and look nothing like modern chimps, orangutans or gorillas.
- The ending is suitably bleak in a traditional Planet of the Apes way, while leaving a big opening for the next chapter.
