Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film starring Franklin J. Directed by Schaffner and based on Pierre Bull's 1963 French novel La Planet des Singes. Written by Michael Wilson and Rod Searling, it stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison. In the picture, an astronaut crew crashes-land on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet may seem desolate at first, surviving crew members stumble upon a society where apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. Ants have taken on the role of dominant species and humans are silent creatures wearing animal skins.
The outline of the Planet of the Apes script, originally written by Serling, was finally rewritten before the filming finally began. Director J. Lee Thompson and Blake Edwards were contacted, but the film's producer, Arthur P. Jacobs, on the recommendation of Charlton Heston, chose Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film. Schaffner's changes include a monkey society that is less advanced than the original novel-and therefore less expensive to portray. Filming took place between May 21 and August 10, 1967 in California, Utah and Arizona, where desert sequences were shot in the vicinity of Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The film's final "off" cost was 5.8 million.
The film was released in the United States on February 8, 1968, and was a commercial success, grossing .6 32.6 million a lifetime. The film was groundbreaking for artist John Chambers' artificial makeup techniques and was well-received by critics and viewers, launching a film franchise with four sequels, as well as a short-lived television show, animated series, comic book and various merchandising. . Notably, Roddy McDowall had a long association with the Apes series, appearing in four of the original five films (absent, second in the series, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where he was replaced by David Watson as Cornelius), and in the television series.
The original series was followed by a remake of Planet of the Apps by Tim Burton in 2001, and the reboot series began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apps. The Library of Congress is "culturally, historically or aesthetically important."
PLOT
Astronauts Taylor, Landon and Dodge wake up from deep hibernation after a near-light-speed space trip. Stuart, the only female crew member, died of a sleep chamber fault caused by an air leak. Their spacecraft crashed into a lake on an unknown planet; Taylor estimates that their home is in Orion's Bellatrix system, 300 light-years from the solar system. Before they left their sunken ship, the chronometers of the three surviving ships fell on November 25, 3978 - two thousand six years after their departure in 1972. However, due to the expansion of time, astronauts are less than a year old.
The males travel through desolate deserts, coming across a freshwater lake with terrifying scarecrow-like images and green vegetation. While swimming, primitive silent people stole men's clothes and tore them. Soon, armed guerrillas attack a corn field where people are gathering food. Taylor and others were caught and shot in the neck. Dodge is killed and Landon falls unconscious in the chaos. Taylor was taken to City on the app. Two chimpanzees, animal psychiatrist Jira and surgeon Galen, save Taylor's life, although a sore throat makes him temporarily mute.
Taylor is kept with a captive woman, whom he later names Nova. He observed a developed society speaking with a strict caste system: guerrillas in the military and workers; Orangutans oversee government and religion; And intelligent chimpanzees are mostly scientists and doctors. Ape Society is a theology, when apes consider primitive humans as insects for prey and are used either for direct killing, enslavement or for scientific experiments. Taylor tells Cumin and his fiance Cornelius that he is just as intelligent as them; One way to make a paper airplane. Dr. Zeus, their Orangutan superior, arranged for Taylor to be eliminated in protest of the cumin. Taylor escapes and finds Dodge's stuffed corpse on display at a museum. He is soon recovered, revealing in the process that he can speak, which warns the apes.
A hearing has been called to determine Taylor's source Taylor mentions two of his comrades, knowing that London has been lobotomized and catatonicized. Believing that Taylor came from an unknown human tribe outside their borders, Zeus personally threatened to castrate and lobotomize Taylor for refusing to reveal his origin. With the help of Jira's nephew Lucius, Jira and Cornelius free Taylor and Nova and take them to the Forbidden Zone, a restricted area outside Ape City where Taylor's ship crashed. Anthropology has ruled the area beyond its borders for centuries. Cornelius and Cumin intend to gather evidence of a previous non-Simeon civilization - which Cornelius discovered a year ago - to clear it of apostasy; Taylor focuses on proving that he came from a different planet.
When the party reaches the cave, Cornelius is stopped by Zeus and his soldiers. Taylor threatens to shoot Zeus, who agrees to enter the cave to disprove his theory. Inside, Cornelius displays remnants of the pre-dating Simian history of a technologically-advanced human society. Taylor identifies teeth, glasses, heart valves ... and, like a monkey's wonder, a baby talking doll. Zeus admits that he always knew about ancient human civilization. Taylor wants to find the answer. Zeus warns Taylor against finding an answer he doesn't like, adding that the now-ruined Forbidden Territory was once a juicy paradise. After allowing Taylor and Nova to leave, Zeus closes the cave to destroy the evidence, while accusing Jira, Cornelius, and Lucius of sedition.
Taylor and Nova follow the coastline on horseback. Eventually, they discover the remains of the Statue of Liberty, revealing that this so-called alien planet is actually Earth, long after a catastrophic nuclear war. Realizing Zeus's earlier warning, Taylor knelt down in frustration. He condemns humanity for destroying itself, while the confused Nova looks on.
TRAILER
DIRECTED BY: Franklin J. Schaffner
CAST
Charlton Heston
as George Taylor
Roddy McDowall
as Dr. Cornelius
Kim Hunter
as Dr. Zira
PRODUCTION
Producer Arthur P. Jacobs bought the rights to the novel Pierre Bulle before it was published in 1963. Jacobs pitched the production in many studios, but it was passed. What a way to go after Jacobs made a successful debut as a producer! (1964) began pre-production of another movie for 20th Century Fox and for the studio, Dr. Dolitl, who became Richard D., Fox's vice-president. He was able to persuade Januk to greenlight the Planet of the Apes.
A script that came close to being written was written by Rod Searling, creator of The Twilight Zone, although it was eventually rejected for a number of reasons. Expenditure was a major concern, as expensive sets, props, and special effects would be involved in the technologically advanced monkey society as illustrated by Serling's script. Formerly blacklisted screenwriter Michael Wilson was brought in to rewrite Serling's script, and director Franklin J. At Schaffner's suggestion, the Ape Society was made more primitive as a way to reduce costs. Surling's stylized twist ending was maintained and it became one of the most famous movie endings of all time. The exact location of the Statue of Liberty and the state of decay have changed in several storyboards. In one version the statue is buried up to its nose in the middle of a forest and in another version the statue is depicted in pieces.
To explain to Fox Studios that Planet of the Apes could be made into a film, the producers shot a brief test scene from Rod Searling's draft of the script on March 8, 1966, using the initial version of App Makeup. An early version of Taylor (whose name was Thomas, since he was in the Serling-written draft), Edward G. Robinson appears as Zeus, while Fox plays two unknown actors, James Brolin and Linda Harrison as Cornelius and Jira. The test footage has been included in several DVD releases of the film, as well as in the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apps. Linda Harrison, at the time, was head of the studio, Richard D. Januk's girlfriend went on to play Nova in the 1968 film and its first sequel, and more than 30 years later made a cameo in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, which was also produced by Zanuck. Although Harrison often commented that the producers always remembered him for the Nova character, they actually considered Ursula Andres first, then Raquel Welch and Angelique Petizon. When these three women proved unavailable or uninterested, Januk gave the part to Harrison. Dr. Zeus was originally played by Robinson, but he was left behind due to the heavy makeup and the long sessions required to apply it. Hayston starred in Robinson's final film, Silent Green (1973), and his one-time Ten Commandments (1956) co-star.
Michael Wilson's rewrite retains the basic structure of Serling's screenplay but rewrites all dialogues and sets the script to a more primitive society. According to co-producer Mort Abrahams, an additional genuine writer (his only recollection was that the author's last name was Kelly) polished the script, rewrote some dialogues and added some more heavy-handed tongue-in-chic dialogues ("I don't like that" Never seen a monkey ") which was not in Serling or Wilson's draft. According to Abrahams, some scenes, such as one where the judges imitate the monkey "see no evil, hear no evil, and hear no evil", director Franklin J. Schaffner improvised on the set and was placed in the final film. Audience response during test screening before release. During filming, John Chambers, who designed the film's artificial make-up, [6] hosted a training session at the 20th Century-Fox Studios, where he consulted with other film make-up artists.
BOX OFFICE
According to Fox records the film required $12,850,000 in theater rentals to break even and made $20,825,000—a large profit for the studio.