Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction action adventure film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal. The sixth installment in the Planet of the Apes film series, it is loosely based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Pierre Boulle and serves as a remake of the 1968 film version. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, and Paul Giamatti. It tells the story of astronaut Leo Davidson (Wahlberg) crash-landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes. The apes treat humans as slaves, but with the help of an ape named Ari (Bonham Carter), Leo starts a rebellion as he seeks to return.
Development for a Planet of the Apes remake started as far back as 1988 with Adam Rifkin. His project nearly reached the pre-production stage before being canceled. Terry Hayes's script, titled Return of the Apes, would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, under the direction of Phillip Noyce. Oliver Stone, Don Murphy, and Jane Hamsher were set to produce. Creative differences ensued between Hayes and 20th Century Fox. Chris Columbus, Sam Hamm, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and the Hughes brothers later became involved. With Broyles Jr.'s script, Burton was hired as director, and the film was put into active development. Konner and Rosenthal rewrote the script, and filming took place from November 2000 to April 2001.
Planet of the Apes was released in the United States on July 27, 2001, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the screenplay and twist ending, but praised Rick Baker's prosthetic makeup designs, visual aspects, and musical score. It grossed $362.2 million worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2001. Despite its financial success, Fox chose to cancel the sequel. Ten years later, the film was rebooted into film series in 2011 with the title, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Plot In 2029, aboard the space station Oberon, Leo Davidson works closely with apes who are trained for space missions. His favorite is a chimpanzee named Pericles. As a deadly electromagnetic storm approaches the station, a small space pod piloted by Pericles probes it. Pericles's pod heads into the storm and disappears. Leo takes a second pod to find Pericles, despite lacking authority to do so. Entering the storm, Leo loses contact with the Oberon and, in 5021 A.D., crashes on a planet called Ashlar. He learns that the world is ruled by intelligent apes who treat humans as slaves.
Leo meets a female chimpanzee named Ari, who protests the mistreatment humans receive. Ari decides to buy Leo and a female slave named Daena to have them serve as servants in her father Senator Sandar's house. Leo escapes his cage and frees other humans. Limbo, an orangutan trader in captured humans, sees them but is taken prisoner to keep him silent. The murderous General Thade and his gorilla junior, Colonel Attar, march ape warriors to pursue the humans.
Leo discovers Calima, the forbidden, holy temple of "Semos", the first ape, whom the apes revere as a god and believe will someday return. Calima turns out to be the remains of the Oberon which had crashed on the planet's surface and now looks ancient. According to the computer logs, the station has been there for millennia. Leo realizes that when he entered the vortex, he was pushed forward in time, while the Oberon, searching for him, was not, crashing on the planet long before he did.
The Oberon's log reveals that the apes on board, led by Semos, organized a mutiny and took over the vessel after it crashed. The human and ape survivors of the struggle left the ship, and their descendants are the people Leo has encountered since landing. The apes arrive and attack the humans gathered to see Leo, though he evens the odds by using Oberon's last fuel fragments to fire a final blast at the first wave. The battle stops when a familiar vehicle descends from the sky: the pod piloted by Pericles, also pushed in time and having just reached the planet. When Pericles lands and the pod opens, the apes interpret him as Semos, and hostilities between humans and apes suddenly cease.
Pericles runs into the wreck of the Oberon and Leo runs after him, followed by General Thade. Thade fights Leo and Pericles until he takes Leo's gun and tries to fire it at Leo. Leo sees that Thade is within the pilot's deck and closes the automatic door, trapping Thade inside. Thade fires the gun repeatedly at the door, but the ricochets create sparks that scare Thade, who huddles under a control panel. Deciding to escape Ashlar and return to Earth, Leo gives Pericles to Ari, who promises to look after him. After saying farewell to Ari and Daena, Leo climbs aboard Pericles's undamaged pod and travels through the same electromagnetic storm.
Leo crashes in Washington, D.C., on Earth and looks up at what appears to be the Lincoln Memorial, only to find it now memorializing General Thade. A swarm of police officers, firefighters, and news reporters descends upon him, but Leo realizes that they are apes and that he is on ape-dominated Earth.
Cast
Apes Tim Roth as General Thade: An ambitious and brutal chimpanzee military commander who wants control over the ape civilization. Thade intends to marry Ari, but she denies him due to his cold soul. Gary Oldman was originally cast in the role, but dropped out for financial reasons. Oldman would later appear in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as Dreyfus, one of the film's antagonists. Roth declined the role of Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone because of his commitment to Planet of the Apes. Alan Rickman was eventually cast as Snape. Roth rewrote some scenes to give his character a more frightening presence. Helena Bonham Carter as Ari: A virtuous chimpanzee who protests the way humans are treated. She helps Leo lead the rebellion. Burton met Bonham Carter while casting for the film, telling her "Don't take this the wrong way, but you were the first person I thought of to play a chimpanzee." They were in a relationship for 13 years and had two children. Michael Clarke Duncan as Colonel Attar: A gorilla military officer who was Thade's associate and second in-command. Djimon Hounsou had turned down the role because of scheduling conflicts with The Four Feathers. Ron Perlman was also a potential candidate that Rick Baker vouched for and even did a design on an old life cast. Duncan was hired to portray the role of Attar in October 2000. Paul Giamatti as Limbo: An orangutan who works in the trade business of human slaves. Limbo is caught in the conflict between humans and apes and tries his best to survive. Giamatti drew inspiration from W. C. Fields for his performance. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as General Krull: A firm but fair gorilla and former military leader whose career had been destroyed by Thade. Krull became a servant of Senator Sandar and assisted the humans in their rebellion. David Warner as Senator Sandar, a chimpanzee politician and Ari's father. Lisa Marie as Nova, Senator Nado's chimpanzee companion. Glenn Shadix as Senator Nado, an orangutan politician in the ape society.
Humans Mark Wahlberg as Captain Leo DavidsonAn astronaut who accidentally enters a portal to another world inhabited by intelligent apes and is captured by them. Leo leads a rebellion of the planet's humans. Wahlberg had backed out of a commitment to Ocean's Eleven to take this role in Planet of the Apes (Matt Damon was eventually cast in the Ocean's Eleven role). Whereas other actors contending for the Leo Davidson role wanted to see the script before signing a contract, Wahlberg signed on after a five-minute meeting with Burton. To avoid evoking associations with his previous work as an underwear model, Wahlberg did not wear a loincloth, even though Heston had worn one in the original film.DVD production notes Kris Kristofferson as Karubi, Daena's father. Karubi is killed by Thade while trying to escape. Kristofferson had immediately agreed to be cast. "The director Tim Burton is a hero of mine. I have eight kids and we've seen all of his films from Pee-wee's Big Adventure to Sleepy Hollow many times". Estella Warren as DaenaA female slave and Karubi's daughter, she develops a romantic attraction to Leo. Erick Avari as Tival, a member of the human resistance. Luke Eberl as Birn, a young human who fights in the rebellion. Evan Dexter Parke as Gunnar, a member of the human resistance.
Other roles include Freda Foh Shen as Bon. Chris Ellis as Lieutenant Karl Vasich. Anne Ramsay as Lieutenant Colonel Grace Alexander. Michael Jace as Major Frank Santos. Andrea Grano as Major Maria Cooper. Kam Heskin, Candace Kroslak and Melody Perkins as friends At Leo's party. Jonah & Jacob (both uncredited) as Pericles, the trained chimpanzee who works with Leo on the space station.
There are also cameo appearances by Charlton Heston (uncredited) as Zaius, Thade's Father, and Linda Harrison (The Woman In The Cart). Both participated in the first two films in the original series, Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) as George Taylor and Nova, respectively.
Development
Late 1980s 20th Century Fox president Craig Baumgarten was impressed with Adam Rifkin's filmmaking with Never on Tuesday. In 1988, Rifkin was brought in the studio to pitch ideas for films. Rifkin, being a fan of the 1968 Planet of the Apes felt it was best to continue the film series. "Having independent film experience, I promised I could write and direct a huge-looking film for a reasonable price and budget, like Aliens." Fox commissioned Rifkin to write what amounted to a sequel, "but not a sequel to the fifth film, an alternate sequel to the first film". He took influences from Spartacus, with the storyline being "the ape empire had reached its Roman era. A descendant of Charlton Heston's character named Duke would eventually lead a human slave revolt against the oppressive Romanesque apes, led by General Izan. A real sword and sandal spectacular, monkey style. Gladiator did the same movie without the ape costumes."
Titled Return to the Planet of the Apes, the project was put on fast track and almost entered pre-production. Rick Baker was hired to design the prosthetic makeup with Danny Elfman composing the film score. Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen were in contention for the lead role. "I can't accurately describe in words the utter euphoria I felt knowing that I, Adam Rifkin, was going to be resurrecting the Planet of the Apes. It all seemed too good to be true. I soon found out it was." Days before the film was to commence pre-production, new studio executives arrived at Fox, which caused creative differences between Rifkin and the studio. Rifkin was commissioned to rewrite the script through various drafts. The project was abandoned until Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh pitched their own idea, with the apes going through a Renaissance. In the story, the ape government becomes concerned over the new art works, the humans are revolting and the liberal apes shelter a half-human, half-ape from the gorillas. Roddy McDowall was enthusiastic about their proposal and agreed to play the Leonardo da Vinci-type character they had written for him. However, the executive Jackson spoke to was not a fan of the series and seemingly unaware of McDowall's involvement in the series, and Jackson turned his attention back to Heavenly Creatures.
Oliver Stone