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Planet of the Apes (1968)

From The Sacred Scrolls

Planet of the Apes
Director Franklin J. Schaffner
Production Company 20th Century Fox and APJAC Productions
Writers Pierre Boulle (original novel),
Rod Serling and Michael Wilson (screenplay)
Released February 2nd, 1968
MPAA Rating GP
Runtime 112 min.
Continuity Movies
"Take your stinkin' paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
--Taylor


Primary Cast:

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

It begins in a spaceship carrying four passengers. The skipper, Taylor speaks of how their ship is traveling 700 years into the future but they are not aging. Then he gives himself a sleeper shot and goes into cryo sleep like his companions. Then the opening credits roll. When they are over it shows the spaceship crashing into a river in the middle of a mountainous desert. The astronauts awake due to the flashing red lights. Taylor and his two male companions, Dodge and Landon, get out of the cryo beds but then notice that the third companion, a woman named Stewart, has died of old age through an air leak in the cryo sleep.

[edit] Cast And Crew

Supporting Cast (uncredited):

Humans flee as the apes' klaxon sounds

Locations

Items

Production Crew

  • Producer ... Arthur P. Jacobs
  • Associate Producer ... Mort Abrahams
  • Unit Production Manager ... William Eckhardt
  • Writer ... Pierre Boulle
  • Script ... Rod Serling, Michael Wilson, John T. Kelly (uncredited)
  • Director ... Franklin J. Schaffner
  • Assistant Director ... William Kissel
  • Director of Photography ... Leon Shamroy
  • Editor ... Hugh S. Fowler
  • Music ... Jerry Goldsmith
  • Orchestrations ... Arthur Morton
  • Sound ... Herman Lewis, David Dockendorf
  • Make Up ... Ben Nye, Dan Striepeke
  • Hair ... Edith Lindon
  • Costume Designer ... Morton Haack
  • Costumer ... John Intlekofer (uncredited)
  • Creative Makeup Design ... John Chambers, Tom Burman (assistant, uncredited), Leo Lotito Jr. (assistant, uncredited)[1], Verne Langdon (special makeup effects, uncredited), Ken Chase (makeup artist, uncredited), Maurice Stein (makeup artist, uncredited), Josephine Turner (wig maker, uncredited), John Thompson (uncredited)
  • Special Photographic Effects ... L.B. Abbott, Art Cruickshank, Emil Kosa Jr
  • Art Directors ... Jack Martin Smith, William Creber
  • Set Decorators ... Walter M. Scott, Norman Rockett
  • Set Construction ... Greg C. Jensen
  • Title Designer ... Don Record

[edit] Behind the Scenes


  • Early on, Warner Brothers selected writer/producer Blake Edwards, more popularly known for his contributions to Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Pink Panther films, to direct Planet of the Apes. Edwards bowed out however, and Jacobs replaced him with Franklin J. Shaffner, at Charlton Heston's suggestion. [3]
  • Before Charlton Heston signed to play the astronaut hero Taylor, John Wayne was among those considered by the producers, who ultimately decided he was too much identified with Westerns.
  • Makeup designer John Chambers said he was called by Fox "six months before the start of shooting" - which would be about December 1966.[5]
  • The movie was scheduled to film in England in spring 1967, but shooting was moved to US locations for reasons unknown.[7]
  • 'Bond girl' Ursula Andress was originally considered for the role of Nova, the beautiful but mute human female ultimately played by Linda Harrison.
  • Julie Harris was originally to have played the role of Zira, but she was anxious about the makeup and was replaced by Kim Hunter.[8] Natalie Wood had also been suggested for the part.
  • The role of Dr. Zaius was originally offered to veteran actor Edward G. Robinson, however Robinson bowed out just before principal shooting citing difficulties with wearing the ape make-up for protracted periods of time. An early screen test showing Robinson as Dr. Zaius can be seen on the 1998 documentary, Behind the Planet of the Apes, and has since been added as bonus material on DVD releases. It has also been suggested that Robinson was actually fired from the production. According to the film's make-up designer, John Chambers, the star refused to shave off his beard, making his ape transformation impossible - "I told the producer he would have to get rid of him." Jacobs had already been scheming to dump Robinson and replace him with someone cheaper and the row was just the excuse he needed. Robinson was paid off, the Welsh Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans was hired and Jacobs saved money. It was in no one's interest that the truth came out and it remained a secret for over thirty years.[9]
  • Charlton Heston noted, as late as April 17, 1967, that Robinson and Harris were still in the cast, but that they looked unlikely to remain. He also suggested that Linda Harrison had still not been cast as Nova, just a month before shooting started on May 21: "The casting problem's really Nova: who will do it, and how naked can she be. The tests I saw were not good."[10]
  • "I had done some work in Utah when I was up there on 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', and I always felt that would be a great place to make a science fiction film. I had no idea that it ever would be applied, in fact it wasn't even my suggestion! It was Jack Martin Smith's idea, the head of the Art Department." - Art director William Creber[11]


The 'Statue of Liberty' scene at Zuma Beach

Filming Locations:

  • Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico
  • Fox Ranch, Malibu, California
  • Glen Canyon, Utah
  • Malibu Creek State Park, Calabasas, California
  • Malibu, California
  • Page, Arizona
  • Zuma Beach, California



  • Much of Planet of the Apes was filmed on location in the Arizona desert, in the middle of summer, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees making the costumes and make-up even more excruciating to wear.
  • While everyone was being photographed by the motion-picture cameras, actor Roddy McDowall (Cornelius) made a number of Super-8 films during his months on location and went around snapping pictures of anything and everyone in sight, and he had co-star Charlton Heston take pictures of the people he couldn't find.[12] Some of his footage can now be found among the extras of DVD releases.
  • Veteran actor Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius) turned up on set in his orangutan make-up wearing an 'Uncle Sam' hat, carrying umbrellas, pinching wardrobe mistresses and clowning for the camera; waving an American flag and spouting Shakespeare in a British accent.[13]
  • Director Franklin J. Schaffner explained the shooting of the opening 'crash-landing': "To get the aerial shots for the crash-down the cameraman was on top of a World War I biplane. We also had a B-25 with a camera in its nose. But when I ran their footage for the crash-down it simply didn't seem to work. So I said the hell with it, let's shoot the picture and then we'll come back to this thing. When we finished shooting and I sat down to cut the picture there was one can of film I had never seen and by cutting wide-footage into zoomed-lens stuff and mixing things up and reversing footage, literally reversing footage, and even running some footage backwards, we put together a sequence which seems to work pretty well for the crash. But it was not planned at all. What was planned didn't get on the screen. What is up there on the screen is what was edited together out of desperation." [14]

[edit] Notes

  • It was intended for Nova to mirror her namesake from the original novel by bearing Taylor's child: "In the penultimate drafts of 'PLANET OF THE APES', Nova (Linda Harrison) was pregnant with Taylor's (Charlton Heston) child. In this version, Taylor was killed by the bullet of an ape sniper just after he sees the Statue of Liberty. But Nova escapes, vanishing into the Forbidden Zone beyond the Statue of Liberty. The meaning is clear: if her unborn child is a male and grows to manhood, the species will survive. If not, modern man becomes extinct. Such an ending left open the possibility of a sequel long before sequels were discussed. Nova's pregnancy was deleted from the film, I'm told, at the insistence of a high-echelon Fox executive who found it distasteful. I suppose that if one defines the mute Nova as merely 'humanoid' and not actually human, it would mean that Taylor had committed sodomy." - screenwriter Michael Wilson[15] The scene was included when Marvel Comics adapted the movie from the original script, but had the dialogue altered. However, the following year the strips were re-printed in colour in Marvel's Adventures on the Planet of the Apes comics with the original 'pregnancy' dialogue restored, probably by mistake.
  • "There was a debate for a long time whether or not Taylor should live after seeing the Statue of Liberty. It seemed to me - as an optimist and one who wants to play fair with an audience - that the man must survive. If he dies in the end there is no reason to tell this story. But 'Planet' went through more discussions in more areas than any picture I have been on - it had to, for there were so many technical and creative problems." - director Franklin J. Schaffner[16]
  • There were two manga adaptations of the original film in Japan, titled Saru no Wakusei ("Planet of Monkeys"). The first was written and drawn by Jôji Enami and published as part of the manga monthly Bôken'Ô ('Adventure King') in the late 1960s. The second was drawn by Minoru Kuroda and published in the Manga Tengoku Zôkan in 1971.

[edit] Inconsistencies

  • Astronauts Taylor, Dodge and Landon physically age eighteen months while in cryogenic sleep aboard the Icarus. When they awaken, they have each grown full beards and mustaches, yet their hair has not grown in length at all.

[edit] Trivia

  • Associate producer Mort Abrahams was concerned that the political and social themes of the movie could cause problems during production: "We never discussed the political aspects with the studio or the actors, because that would have raised an issue. Frank [Schaffner] and I had a pact: we would not discuss it with the actors, we would not discuss it with the studio. If they picked up on it, we would have handled it then."[17]
  • The famous courtroom scene was inspired by a 1920's court case in which a Tennessee schoolteacher was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution, a case which later became the classic film Inherit the Wind.
  • Mort Abrahams and Twentieth Century Fox feared Charlton Heston's self-written "God damn you all to hell", as opposed to the script's "My God" might result in the film being classified as unsuitable for children.[18]
  • The film had the largest make-up budget in Hollywood history, exceeding $1 million - more than one sixth of the entire budget.
  • Released on 8 February 1968, Planet of the Apes grossed $26 million at the box office - more than four times its production budget of $5.8 million, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.
  • Planet of the Apes was nominated for two Academy Awards for 1968, 'Original Score' (Jerry Goldsmith) and 'Costume Design' (Morton Haack), but lost respectively to The Lion In Winter (John Barry) and Romeo And Juliet (Danilo Donati). The film did win a Special Oscar, for John Chambers for his 'Special Makeup Design'.

[edit] Quotes

Taylor: And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We're now on full automatic in the hands of the computers. I've tucked my crew in for the long sleep, and I'll be joining them...soon. In less than an hour, we'll finish our six months out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space...by our time, that is. According to Dr. Hasslein's theory of time in a vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it...while we've aged hardly at all. Maybe so. This much is probably true. The men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You, who are reading me now, are a different breed...I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets, but...one more thing, if anybody's listening, that is. Nothing scientific; it's purely personal. But seen from out here, everything seems different. Time bends. Space is boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely. That's about it. Tell me, though...does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother...keep his neighbor's children starving?

Taylor: You're 300 light years from your precious planet. Your loved ones are dead and forgotten for 20 centuries. 20 centuries! Even if you could get back, they'd think you were something that fell out of a tree.

Taylor: And there's just one last item: immortality. You wanted to live forever, didn't you? Well, you damn near made it. Except for me and Dodge, you've lived longer than anyone ever born. And with our lovely Lieutenant Stewart dead, looks like you're the last of the line. You got what you wanted, tiger. How does that taste?

Dr. Zaius: Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you'll find.

Taylor: It's a mad-house! A MAD-HOUSE!

Cornelius: Zira! Do you want to get my head chopped off!

Julius: Human see, human do!

Taylor: Oh, my God. I am back?! I am home. All the time it was...! We finally really did it! You maniacs! You blew it up! Ahhh, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Dr. Zaius: To suggest that we can learn anything about the simian nature from a study of man is sheer nonsense. Why, man is a nuisance. He eats up his food supply in the forest, then migrates to our green veldts and ravages our crops. The sooner he is exterminated, the better. It's a question of simian survival.

Dr. Zaius: Have you forgotten your scripture, the thirteenth scroll? "And Proteus brought the upright beast into the garden and chained him to a tree and the children did make sport of him."

Cornelius: Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.

Dr. Zira: What will he find out there, Doctor?

Dr. Zaius: His destiny.

Dr. Zaius: Because you're a man. And you're right, I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand and hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him, even himself.

Taylor: Don't try to follow us. I'm pretty handy with this.
Dr. Zaius: Of that, I am sure. All my life I've awaited your coming and dreaded it. Like death itself.
Taylor: I've terrified you from the first, Doctor. I still do. You're afraid of me and you hate me. Why?
Dr. Zaius: Because you're a man. And you're right. I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand in hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him. Even himself.
Taylor: What evidence? There were no weapons in that cave.
Dr. Zaius: The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it ages ago.
Taylor: It still doesn't give me the why, a planet where...apes evolved from men? There's got to be an answer.
Dr. Zaius: Don't look for it, Taylor! You may not like what you'll find.

Lucius: Dr. Zaius, this is inexcusible! Why must knowledge stand still?! What about the future?!!
Dr. Zaius: I may just have saved it for you.
Dr. Zira: What will he find out there, Doctor?
Dr. Zaius: His destiny.

[edit] Related Articles

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Leo Lotito Jr. biography (2008)
  2. ↑ The Legend of the Planet of the Apes by Brian Pendreigh (reprinted in 'Night & Day' (2001))
  3. ↑ Franklin James Schaffner article at All-Movie Guide
  4. ↑ The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston (1978)
  5. ↑ 'Cinefantastique Planet of the Apes Issue' (1972) at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive
  6. ↑ 'Cinefantastique Planet of the Apes Issue' (1972) at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive
  7. ↑ The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston (1978)
  8. ↑ The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston (1978)
  9. ↑ The Legend of the Planet of the Apes by Brian Pendreigh (reprinted in 'Night & Day' (2001))
  10. ↑ The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston (1978)
  11. ↑ 'Cinefantastique Planet of the Apes Issue' (1972) at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive
  12. ↑ 'The Monster Times' (1972)
  13. ↑ 'The Monster Times' (1972)
  14. ↑ 'Films In Review' interview, conducted January 1969
  15. ↑ 'Marvel's Planet of the Apes', USA Issue 2 (October 1974)
  16. ↑ 'Films In Review' interview, conducted January 1969
  17. ↑ The Legend of the Planet of the Apes by Brian Pendreigh (reprinted in 'Night & Day' (2001))
  18. ↑ The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston (1978)
Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes Beneath the Planet of the Apes Escape from the Planet of the Apes Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Battle for the Planet of the Apes


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