The web site doesn’t even seem to work (click to enter -> page can not be found). Directed by Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow, Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman) and starring Markie-mark “Boogie Nights” Wahlberg.
Neither a direct remake of the classic starring Charlton Heston nor a close adaptation of the novel by Pierre Boulle, this version, from a script by William Broyles Jr. (China Beach, Apollo 13), is instead a “re-imagination” of the ape-planet concept. The film is also said to be inspired by the entire series of Planet of the Apes, rather than just the first film
There will still be people in chimp, gorilla & orangutan costumes, which are reported to be similar to the masks from the original, only updated and more articulated to better show off the actors beneath. The make-up work is being done by Academy Award winner Rick Baker (The Nutty Professor, The Grinch).
(Spoiler coming up for anybody who hasn’t seen the original!)
There is still, reportedly, a big shocker ending; something just as shocking to modern audiences as the Statue of Liberty shot was at the end of the original.
Any guesses what the big shocker will be? Soylent Green is monkeys?
I heard somewhere that there is no Statue of Liberty – that they are not, in fact, on the Earth of the Future. I don’t know if that’s the big surprise at the end or not. It’s consistent with the book by Boulle if true. I have to confess that the ending of the original has always bothered me – it doesn’t make sense on any level. You don’t wake up at journey’s end on your starship and find yourself back home – that’s the stuff of allegory and crude fantasy, not science fiction. If something was going to be preserved – in rock, at that – it certainly wouldn’t be the flimsy Statue of Liberty, with its lightweight Gustave Eiffel interior scaffold and its thick-as-a-penny copper sheathing. A skyscraper would last longer – and wouldn’t it somehow be more appropriate if the surviving building on the Planet of the Apes was the Empire State Building?
I have hear that it is not earth as well. I did see a new preview and it looked like it would be Braveheart but instead of Brits and Scotts it would be Apes and Humans. Marky Mark is said to make out with a chimp woman as well. The new preview shows Marky escaping the Ape city to a human refugee camp looking place but the Ape army tracks them down the the Ape leader says…
They could use for the closing credits the song, “Yes, We Have No Bananas…”
If the planet isn’t Earth, how do the apes and humans speak (yes, in this one the humans speak) English? Maybe Earth colonized the stars while Marky was jettin’ around the galaxy, then the apes took over?
And to be truly consistent with the Boulle novel, the apes would be technologically advanced. In the book, apes help the astronaut get back to orbit to his mothership.
Not necessarily. It works if the ship arrived, failed to awaken the crew, then fired up the return-home part of its programming (assuming there was such code). It’s a stretch, but it hardly ruined the show. There were plenty of equally shaky details (human loss of speech, for one).
I have become a big fan of Mark Wahlberg. I really like watching him on screen–not even in a “crush” sort of way; he just intrigues me and I’ve liked him in nearly everything I’ve seen him in. So I’ll probably try hard to bribe Mr. Cranky into seeing this flick. I am not sure I can handle watching Herr Wahlberg making out with a chimp, though.
When I was little, I was really into Planet of the Apes. Not sure why. Now I loathe Heston and have a hard time watching him in anything. He doesn’t have a cheesy cameo or anything in this one, does he?
Perhaps it will suck more than Pearl Harbor (which doesn’t look terrible to me, but I’m not interested in watching it) but do you think it could suck more than the new Rob Snider move The Animal (or whatever it’s called) is likely to? I think that one is a shoe-in for lowest grossing major release of the year. Heck, maybe even of all time
I’ve been to the official site several times and it worked okay, though slowly. Haven’t been there lately. Maybe it’s slowed down?
I saw the trailers, photos, interview, etc.
Actually, I think it will be a huge hit and that it won’t suck.
I used to teach Boulle’s novel in college. At the end, Ulysse Merou (the name they’ll never use in any ape movie) makes it back to Earth, only to find that apes have taken over, so he splits in his spaceship again (if I recall correctly).
And the new movie definitely takes place on some other planet, not ours.
Whoah, Tim Burton and Mark Wahlberg? Until I read that, I had no interest in this project at all. Now, I’m really looking forward to it. Any Tim Burton movie is worth seeing at least once, and Mark Wahlberg is one of the most under-rated actors out there. His performance in Three Kings was phenomenal, part of what made that movie my favorite war movie ever. (FWIW, George Clooney, also in Three Kings is one of the other most under-rated actors in Hollywood
I fully agree, and Wahlberg was also great in Boogie Nights.
Burton had been in talks with Matt Damon for the Apes movie, but I’m glad he went with Wahlberg instead.
Charlton Heston, after initially turning them down due to the rigors of the makeup for a man his age, was finally talked into one day’s worth of filming as… A DAMN DIRTY APE! Further rumor has it that he may even play a female chimpanzee. Honest to God, not making this up. So, the fact that he does do a cameo is official.
CrankyAsAnOldMan, do you loathe Heston, the man, or Heston the actor? Just curious, not trying to be disagreeable. I love the work of many actors whose political views I disagree with or even despise. FWIW, in my humble opinion, I find Heston to be a fair to good actor, even great in “Will Penny.” He plays Charlton Heston parts well, sort of the way John Wayne played John Wayne.
Now, as to the twister. Here’s my theory. SPOILER, MAYBE.
I’ve read that Walhberg’s character goes through a space/time warp of some sort to get to this planet. Somehow, I think I’ve read that’s he starts from a space station that has a collection of animals, a zoo if you will, on board. Perhaps a few monkeys. . . Monkeys goes through time warp. Walhberg then goes through time warp, jumps up a few million years into the future. My guess is Walhberg on his knees at the end, screaming “I did it. I finally did it. Goddamn ME all to hell, I created the Planet of The Apes!” Or something like that.
