Planet of the Apes (media franchise)

Planet of the Apes is a science fiction media franchise based on La Planète des singes (Planet of the Apes in the United States) or Monkey Planet in the United Kingdom), a 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle. The franchise first gained popularity thanks to the wild success of the 1968 film adaptation, which featured both ground-breaking makeup effects and a remarkable twist ending that left audiences stunned. A series of sequels highlighted by entries like Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) quickly followed. Over the course of the next several decades, the Planet of the Apes universe expanded to include two short-lived television series, various comic book and video game adaptations, and an often-panned 2001 remake of the original film. The franchise was revived in the 2010s on the strength of a well-received reboot film series that began in 2011 with the release of a prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Three additional movies in the updated Planet of the Apes franchise have been released since 2011.

Background

French author Pierre Boulle was born in Avignon, France in 1912. He began his professional life as an engineer on a Malaysian rubber plantation and was employed there at the start of World War II in 1939. In 1940, when the German Nazi regime invaded and quickly conquered France, Boulle joined the Free France Mission in Singapore and began working as a spy against Germany. Eventually captured by Vichy, France loyalists sympathetic to the Germans, he endured two years of grueling forced labor that ended only when the Germans were forced into retreat. After the war, Boulle received several honors for his heroism, including the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance, and initially returned to his earlier job as a rubber plantation engineer. Eventually, however, he left the engineering industry and relocated to Paris to pursue a writing career.

Starting in 1950, Boulle penned a string of popular novels that he always wrote by hand. His first major success came with the publication of Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï (The Bridge over the River Kwai) in 1952. Inspired by Boulle’s own wartime experiences, The Bridge over the River Kwai was a worldwide bestseller based on the real-life story of the Allied prisoners of war who were forced to build the Burma Railway between 1942 and 1943. The wildly popular novel was later adapted into the acclaimed motion picture Bridge on the River Kwai, starring actor Alec Guinness.

The Bridge over the River Kwai remained Boulle’s most successful work for more than a decade. That changed, however, with the debut of La Planète des singes in 1963. Originally published as Monkey Planet in English, the novel was a massive hit that soon became known by the literally translated version of its title, Planet of the Apes. In the story, the sole surviving crew member of a spacecraft that crash lands on a planet in the Betelgeuse system learns that the planet is ruled by technologically advanced talking apes. He also quickly learns that the few humans on this strange planet are little more than subservient savages. In short order, Planet of the Apes became Boulle’s most recognizable novel.

Overview

The overwhelming success of Boulle’s Planet of the Apes quickly generated Hollywood interest in a film adaptation. Unfortunately, the technical requirements that would have to be met to bring the novel to the silver screen presented a major challenge for filmmakers to tackle. Boulle’s original description of his alien ape civilization was so technologically advanced that it seemed as though it would be all but impossible to convincingly capture on film. Even Boulle himself believed his novel was unfilmable. As such, he had no problem selling the film rights for Planet of the Apes to press agent Arthur P. Jacobs, who subsequently managed to convince Twentieth Century Fox vice president Richard D. Zanuck to greenlight a film adaptation. Jacobs also recruited legendary Twilight Zone writer Rod Serling to pen a screenplay that would make it easier to translate Boulle’s novel to film. In addition to toning down some of the original story’s difficult-to-recreate technological aspects, Serling also added a new twist ending in which it was ultimately revealed that the titular Planet of the Apes was actually a future version of Earth.

The original Planet of the Apes film, which stars Charlton Heston as astronaut George Taylor and Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall as ape scientists Zira and Cornelius, was a smash hit when it arrived in theaters in 1968. In addition to the new twist ending, much of the film’s popularity was a result of the ground-breaking makeup effects used to convincingly transform its actors into human-like apes. Just two months after Planet of the Apes was released, plans were put in place for what eventually turned into a series of sequels. The first of these was 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which explores the existence of a colony of mutant humans living far below the surface of the ape-dominated Earth. The next three sequels, which include Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), all go back in time to explore the origins of the ape civilization.

Although the original Planet of the Apes film series ended with Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the broader Planet of the Apes franchise was far from over. In 1974 and 1975, a pair of Planet of the Apes television series—the live-action Planet of the Apes and the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes—aired for a short time. A critically panned remake of the original Planet of the Apes marked the franchise’s initial return to the big screen in 2001. A reboot film series kicked off with the 2011 release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That film and the sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) offer a reimagined take on how Earth came to be controlled by intelligent apes thanks to the efforts of Caesar, a pivotal ape character first introduced in the original Planet of the Apes sequels. In 2024, a fourth movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, joined the franchise. This installment takes place 300 years after the previous movie. The apes have returned to a primitive state, and humans and apes must work together to ensure the survival of both. Over the years, the Planet of the Apes universe has also expanded to include comic books, video games, and a large range of toys and merchandise.

Bibliography

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Kaye, Don. “Human See, Human Do: A Complete History of the ‘Planet of the Apes.’” Rolling Stone, 1 July 2014, www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/human-see-human-do-a-complete-history-of-planet-of-the-apes-107958. Accessed 13 Apr. 2021

Macek, J.C., III. “Origin of the Species: ‘Planet of the Apes’ from Page to Screen.” PopMatters, 4 Aug. 2014, www.popmatters.com/183974-origin-of-the-species-planet-of-the-apes-from-page-to-screen-2495636346.html. Accessed 16 May 2024.

“Planet of the Apes.” Filmsite, 2021, www.filmsite.org/series-planetofapes.html. Accessed 13 Apr. 2021.

Towlson, Jon. “50 Years of Planet of the Apes: Why the Original Series Still Holds a Warning for Us All.” British Film Institute, 8 Feb. 2018, www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/planet-apes-sci-fi-charlton-heston. Accessed 13 Apr. 2021.

Wilkinson, Alissa. “'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' Review: Hail, Caesar.” The New York Times, 10 May 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/movies/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-review.html. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Yanes, Javier. “The Origin of the Origin of the Planet of the Apes.” BBVA OpenMind, 30 Jan. 2019, www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/humanities/arts/the-origin-of-the-origin-of-the-planet-of-the-apes. Accessed 16 May 2024.