The Best Science-Fiction Film Quintology Ever?
Planet of the Apes; Beneath the Planet of the Apes; Escape from the Planet of the Apes; Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes
The now iconic Planet Of The Apes was released in February 1968 only two months before the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is an adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s novel Monkey Planet with the original script having been written by Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone. However, his vision had been considered too expensive to recreate, as he had envisioned the Apes living in a modern-day setting. So they placed the Apes in a primitive setting to keep within the $5 million budget.
The executives at Twentieth Century Fox were nervous. The film was an undoubted gamble and many were pessimistic in their prognosis for the film’s success even with Charlton Heston as their leading man. They believed that a film with talking apes would (if not carried out sufficiently well) make them the laughingstock of Hollywood.
How wrong they were?! Franklin J. Schaffner’s provocative allegory led to four sequels, two television series, a remake of the original film by Tim Burton — or rather a reimagining — and a completely new series of films by Matt Reeves…
