VZSciFi DataFile: Planet of the Apes

LAST UPDATED: 24 October 2000

VZSciFi Datafile: Return to the Planet of the Apes: The Visitors

Genre: Action adventure
Premise: An attempt to revive the smash-hit franchise?

Latest (13 October 2000): Director Tim Burton's upcoming remake of Planet of the Apes may feature a broader variety of ape and monkey species than the original 1968 film, according to the Coming Attractions web site. The first movie featured only chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas, but according to one of those ntorious unnamed sources, the simian list is now: chimpanzees, baboons, orangutans, howler monkeys, mangabeys, gorillas, spider monkeys, lervet monkeys, mandrills and loris monkeys. Michael Clarke Duncan will play a giant silverback gorilla, the site added.

4 August 2000: Mark Wahlberg has got the leading lady he wanted for The Visitors. Wahlberg has gone on record speaking of his desire to share the screen with Fight Club star Helena Bonham Carter, so he could "make out with her" (a quote from the Guardian's Film Unlimited). Variety reports that Bonham Carter has signed up to play a simian princess who believes that humans and apes can peacefully live together in the film. It is rumoured that she will feature in a bestial love scene with Wahlberg's character.
Said Wahlberg, "I think we'll be making out - which will be interesting, very interesting. I think we're going to push the boundaries out a little bit and actually have sex!"

Cast: Tim Roth will play one of the lead roles opposite Mark Wahlberg; Helen Bonham Carter (possibly a simian princess who believes that humans and apes can peacefully live together); Paul Giamatti (Limbo, a slave-trading ape who sympathizes with the humans' plight)
Possibles as of 27/07/00: Estella Warren
Script: William Broyles Jr. The project has previously garnered the interest from several A-list filmmakers in past months, driven by Broyles' strong script. Broyles is the scribe behind the Tom Hanks-starrer Castaway for Robert Zemeckis and Fox. His new script centres, apparently, on a 25-year-old lead and was, allegedly, written with stunning visuals to appeal specifically to Burton, and a strong, humanistic storyline.
The film has gone through various incarnations over the years, including those with Oliver Stone and James Cameron. The eleventh issue of the online and print magazine Cashiers du Cinemart published an extremely interesting article about the ongoing plans for a new Planet of the Apes film. The article appears online as well as in the print version. The article disects the script submitted by Sam Hamm and Terry Hayes at least three years ago for consideration, although that now seems to have been dropped in favour of one by Bill Broyles, and fills in some background on the original movie script and the novel that inspired it by Pierre Boulle. Cashiers du Cinemart is a 100-page monster this time out, featuring tons of movie, music, book, and zine reviews, in depth articles about author Charles Willeford, video provocateur Mike Z, the unseen Payback, and more.
Producers:20th Century Fox president of production Hutch Parker will oversee the project. Richard Zanuck is producing.
Director: Tim Burton. Back in February 2000, the Hollywood Reporter revealed Tim Burton was in final negotiations to take the helm of the edgy remake of the 1968 original that starred Charlton Heston.
Other Prod Personnel: Five-time Oscar winner Rick Baker is providing the special effects makeup for the project. Stan Winston had long been on Planet, staying on even as the project went from filmmaker to filmmaker in the development process. Winston worked on two of Tim Burton's films: Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns.

Planet of the Apes game launch, pic by Jim Brumbaugh

Prod Company: Information welcome!
Prod Start: Must be soon!
US Release Date: 4 July 2001
UK Release Date: Information welcome!
Licensing: A Planet of the Apes computer game was announced at E3 2000. (Picture by Jim Brumbaugh)
Sources include: Coming Attractions, Hollywood Reporter, Variety