Arthur P. Jacobs

From The Sacred Scrolls

Arthur P. Jacobs (March 7th, 1922 - June 27, 1973) was an American film producer based out of Los Angeles, California. Jacobs had always loved movies, and he made them with the same devotion and enthusiasm. Born in Los Angeles, he majored in cinema at the University of Southern California. From working as a messenger at MGM, he went through their publicity department, as well as that at Warner Brothers, on his way to opening his own public relations office. As the president and major stockholder of his own production company, APJAC Productions, he produced Doctor Doolittle, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Chairman, and, of course, all five original Planet of the Apes films.

• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

The Planet of the Apes saga began with La Planète des singes, a 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle that combined speculative fiction adventure with Swiftian social satire. Around 1964, the screen rights to Planet of the Apes were purchased by publicist-turned-producer Jacobs - a 'Final Production Information Guide' Jacobs used to promote his movie in 1968 claimed that he had purchased the movie rights "from the original French-language galley proofs prior to the novel's publication". ^[1] However, he presumably bought the rights from 'King Brothers Productions', who had already commissioned Twilight Zone screenwriter Rod Serling in late 1963 to complete a script treatment for the cinema. ^[2] Serling also seemed to remember that Blake Edwards, at one point before Jacobs' involvement, was interested in producing as well as directing the project. ^[3]

Jacobs, interviewed in December 1971, recalled: "About six years ago, I was looking for material, and I would meet with various literary agents. I said, 'What I would like to find is something like King Kong.' I didn't want to make King Kong again, because you can't do that. About six months later, I was in Paris, and a literary agent called me, came over, and said he had a new novel by Francoise Saigan. I read it, and wasn't too fascinated. Then he said, 'Speaking of King Kong, I've got a thing here, and it's so far out, I don't think you can make it.' He told me the story, and I said, 'I'll buy it - gotta buy it.' He said, 'I think you're crazy, but okay.' So I bought it, and that's how it came about." ^[4]

Initially working in partnership with J. Lee Thompson, Jacobs began working to bring it to the big screen. The process was long and difficult. British director Thompson later reflected: "It was looking pretty grim at one time, so I very stupidly sold my share in the film back to Arthur" (Thompson would eventually direct the fourth and fifth Apes movies). By the end of the year, Jacobs believed that he was on the point of a deal with Fox and Paul Newman, who was to take the lead, but the studio calculated the film would coat $2.5 million and decided it was too expensive.^[5] With the help of associate producer Mort Abrahams, the continued involvement of screenwriter Rod Serling, and with Blake Edwards now slated to direct the film for Warner Brothers, the studio estimated the budget would surpass $10 million. No one in Hollywood or in Europe was willing to risk that much money on a concept as unbelievable as a planet of talking apes. "I spent about three and a half years of everyone refusing to make the movie. First, I had sketches made, and went through six sets of artists to get the concept, but none of them were right. Finally, I hit on a seventh one, and said that's how it should look. Then, I showed the sketches to the studios, and they said, 'No way.' Then, I got Rod Serling to do the screenplay, and went to everybody again - absolute turndown. I even went to J. Arthur Rank in England, and Samuel Bronston in Spain. Everyone said no." ^[4]

It was during these early stages of frequent script revisions that the idea for the famous ending to the movie was devised. Jacobs: "We were trying to make the audience believe it was another planet, which differs from Boulle‘s novel in which it WAS another planet. I thought that was rather predictable when we were doing the first screenplay. It's funny, I was having lunch with Blake Edwards, who at one point was going to direct it, at the Yugo Kosherarna Delicatessen in Burbank, across the street from Warner Brothers. I said to him at the time. 'It doesn't work, it's too predictable.' Then I said, 'What if he was on the earth the whole time and doesn't know it, and the audience doesn‘t know it.' Blake said, 'That's terrific. Let's get a hold of Rod.' As we walked out, after paying for the two ham sandwiches, we looked up, and there's this big Statue of Liberty on the wall of the deltcatessen. We both looked at each other and said, 'Rosebud' (the key to the plot of 'Citizen Kane'). If we never had lunch in that delicatessen, I doubt that we would have had the Statue of Liberty as the end of the picture. I sent the finished script to Boulle, and he wrote back, saying he thought it was more inventive than his own ending, and wished that he had thought of it when he wrote the book." ^[4] Edwards himself claimed that he came up with the Statue of Liberty ending, together with former Disney artist Don Peters, stating "As I recall it was pretty much Don".^[6] Don Peters, for his part, claimed that it was his idea alone, because he first introduced the ruined Statue of Liberty scenes to the Apes project when he did the original publicity paintings for Jacobs. ^[7]

However, the twist ending has also been attributed to Serling, who's experience writing for Twilight Zone gives his claim more creedence. Mort Abrahams, who as associate producer was very involved in script revisions, said succinctly "That was Rod's ending". ^[8] When asked about the ending himself, Serling said variously: "The book's ending is what I wanted to use in the film, as much as I loved the idea of the Statue of Liberty. I always believed that was my idea." "That's very possible [that the ending was a combination of about four or five people thinking the same thing at about the same time].";^[4] but also that it was "In collaboration with Jacobs. Yes, it was a wild cinematic scene." ^[9] In contrast to Jacobs' assertion, Boulle maintained: "I disliked somewhat, the ending that was used - the Statue of Liberty - which the critics seemed to like, but personally, I prefer my own. Since they decided to make the fllm, they picked this ending. They had that final scene in mind from the first day." ^[4]

In time, Edwards departed for other projects and the on-again, off again Ape film was shopped around and rejected by the studios for years. Eventually the tenacious Jacobs secured actor Charlton Heston (who regarded Jacobs as a "difficult and slippery a character to deal with"^[10]), and, on Heston's recommendation, director Franklin J. Schaffner (later director of Oscar-winning Patton). Jacob's APJAC productions brought the budget estimate down to $5.8 million and produced a screen test starring Heston as astronaut Thomas and Edward G. Robinson as the orangutan Doctor Zaius. The test utilized paintings to depict major scenes which led up to the filmed confrontation between Heston and Robinson, which was written by Serling and directed by Schaffner. "I figured, maybe if I got an actor involved, and I went to Charlton Heston who, in one hour, said yes. Then Heston suggested Franklin Schaffner as director, and he also said yes. Now I have Heston, Schaffner, a screenplay, and all the sketches, I go right back to everybody, and I finally convinced Richard D. Zanuck to let me make a test, and I got Heston and Edward G. Robinson, with Schaffner directing it. I showed it to Zanuck, who really got excited over it. Rod Serling wrote a long, nine-page scene, a conversation between Taylor and Dr. Zaius, which was condensed in the final film. Everyone thought that no one would believe an ape talking to a man, and I said, 'I will prove to you that they will believe it.' We packed the screening room with everyone we could get a hold of, and Zanuck said, 'If they start laughing, forget it.' Nobody laughed, they sat there tense, and he said, 'Make the picture'." ^[4] The minifilm proved to the head of 20th Century Fox as well as to it's executives that talking apes would not evoke unwanted laughs and Zanuck gave Jacobs the green light.

The phenomenal success of the movie led to plans for a follow-up: "We didn't plan any sequel in the first one, but it became so successful that Fox said you must do a sequel, if you can come up with one. First I went to Pierre Boulle to write the screenplay. He said he didn‘t know how one makes one, then when I showed him a print of the first one, he was just absolutely ecstatic. He did write a treatment for a sequel, titled 'Planet of the Men', but it wasn't cinematic. Then, I went to Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams in London, and spent about two weeks, walking and walking, trying to figure out where to go from the Statue of Liberty. Of course, in that second one, we blew up the world, and said that's the end of the sequels." ^[4]

In fact, a further three sequels were made after they blew up the world, making Planet of the Apes one of the most remarkable movie series in cinematic history, and a precursor to the massive sci-fi movie industry that developed during the 1970's and beyond. Arthur was married to movie star, Natalie Trundy, who appeared in four of the five POTA films playing three different characters. He died of a sudden heart attack less than two weeks after the fifth movie premiered, aged only 51. Asked if he was concerned about the critic's response to his films, Jacobs had this to say: "I have learned not to worry about reviews. Where I'm concerned is that people see the picture. If people see it and like it, that makes me happy." ^[4]

[edit] External Links

• Arthur P. Jacobs article at Wikipedia
• Arthur P. Jacobs biography page at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

[edit] References

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