Caesar: Rise of the Apes - On Set Pics

This is actually a reboot of the original franchise from the point of view of the fourth film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. It has NOTHING to do with the Burton film. If you want a lot more info on the film, head over to our Earth's Mightiest page devoted to it at http://www.earthsmightiest.com/fansites/planetoftheapes.

Oh I loved them! Still freak me out. They remind me of meth-heads.

Tea-- They all look like they would be in Oingo Boingo or Frankie goes to Hollywood.

Ed-- Hopefully. The old ones were full of unmasked social commentary, presented in an entertaining package. They have trouble doing the same these days.

If HOLLYWOOD did a PLANET OF THE APES VS ALIEN NATION (like the comic books) now that would be [frick]ing fantastic!

teabag, the one you're referring to is Escape From the Planet of the Apes, which is really an incredible reversal of the original Planet.

For those who don't know the history of those films, here's a quick rundown (and note there are SPOILERS):

1. Planet of the Apes (1968): Charlton Heston leads astronauts to what they believe is an alien world ruled by intelligent apes, but it turns out that this is Earth 2,000 years in the future.

2. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): Second astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus) follows Taylor's trajectory and lands in the same time period Taylor had. Finds himself in the middle of war between apes and mutant humans living underground in New York City. Film ends with alpha-omega bomb going off, destroying the entire planet (literally). Series over.

Not!

3. Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971): Chimpanzees Cornelius, Zira and Milo somehow (!) manage to get Taylor's ship back into space, and the shockwaves of Earth's destruction at the end of Beneath propel them backwards in time to the present. There they are initially treated as celebrities, until it's discovered that Zira is pregnant and the fear arises that her child could lead to the downfall of humanity. Things go very dark as the apes are hunted and killed. But the baby survives.

4. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972): Cornelius and Zira's kid, Caesar, grows up and is horrified to see that humans have turned apes into slaves. When his human foster father, Armando (Khan... er, Richardo Montalban) dies while in police custody, Caesar leads a rebellion of the apes, beginning humanity's downfall.

5. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973): Can apes and humans live together in peace? That's what Caesar is trying to decide when he finds himself dealing with a gorilla military uprising and a batch of mutant humans who are the ancestors of those in Beneath. At film — and saga's end — there is hope for the future. Maybe.

Ed - Easy way around this, have an digitally remastered anniversary 'Box Set' re-release (we ARE talking over 40 years!)! That way people can see it the WAY IT WAS INTENDED!! How would people feel if George Lucas decided to change the original 'Star Wars' trilogy? Ooops, bad example... no, wait - PERFECT example! When Lucas tinkered with the classic, a LOT of people were up in arms over the changes (ESPECIALLY the digital insertion of Hayden Christensen at the end of 'Return'!) Now imagine if (somewhere way down the line) someone said 'I want to reimage the whole damn thing! Lucas' version was good, but I want to play around with it to see if I can do better." Don't you think people MIGHT have a problem with that?

loganoneil, They might, but what I've learned from personal experience it that these things will indeed fade away if the current generation doesn't feel connected with them. I had to practically pay my kids to watch the original King Kong. All I heard was complaining: "It's in black and white; the dialogue is terrible; the effects suck..." etc. and so forth. But then they saw Peter Jackson's King Kong and they were completely in to it. When they think of King Kong, THAT'S what they think about. They just don't care about older things.

My wife and I were in California recently and we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre. She was offended that Adam Sandler's handprints and footprints were near Humphrey Bogart's. I pointed out to her, that that's the only way to keep people coming to check it out. Nobody from today knows who Humphrey Bogart is or, unfortunately, cares. It's just the way things are.

Which is not to say I'm into Hollywood's wholesale remaking of its past, but I understand it to a degree. Arthur (starring Dudley Moore) is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and a classic, and they're now remaking it with Russell Brand as Arthur. Some people are upset by it (including me), but when I stop and realize that the original came out 30 years ago, I have to believe there's a whole generation of filmgoers that aren't familiar with it. Same thing with Fright Night (LOVE IT!) - that was 25 years ago.

And then there's JJ Abrams reimagining Star Trek. I'm a Trek fan from the show's debut in 1966 (I was all of six) and was very wary of it, but I also recognized that the franchise had lost its luster; that people just didn't care about it the way they used to and that it was fading away as well. Abrams' take on the material gave the concept a shot on the arm and it seems to be back on track.

Anyway, I know that's a long-winded response. I just don't think these things are held to be as precious as they should be, and all we can do is hope that they'll approach the new versions with some passion for the original as well as with a creative vision.

I'm with loganoneil. Star Trek is about the only exception of Hollywood making a decent reboot, though Star Trek was a television series that was made into a movie, and when they made the first Star Trek film, it wasn't done from the beginning, so I look at Abram's film as being the first real attempt to "remake" Star Trek.

I felt so disappointed the other week that they are remaking True Grit. There is just no way anyone can justify remaking certain movies. Some I don't mind, but the classics and good movies should be left alone. If the original sucked...have at it. That means it wasn't a classic in the first place, if it wasn't any good. I know a lot of kids who enjoy watching older movies. Parents and other influences just need to share the good films with them.

Ranger14, I agree that True Grit is a film that doesn't need to be remade. But I still stick with the notion that -- as teabag points out -- kids today aren't really familiar with anything from before the '90s and True Grit came out, I think, 41 years ago. I may not like the idea, but it's a story that will reach a whole new audience (if told well) that never will see the original (except perhaps out of curiosity when they see the remake).

Last week, Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosisnki talked to me about remaking Disney's The Black Hole. Now THAT I can get behind as the original didn't live up to its potential.

Again I emphasize I'm not an advocate of all of these remakes. Just dealing with the way the originals are looked upon today, unfortunately.

TEA @ Bwahahahhahahhahhaahaha! : D

phenomenon - Vorager was self-contained, they wrapped it up and moved on (as seen in the ADMIRAL Janeway cameo in 'Nemisis'). What I'd like to see a continuation on is DS9 - the plotlines and character dynamics were more evolved and even though Sisko has 'moved on', there's still a ton of room for more story-telling. Or possibly an 'Enterprise' continuation - that series never had the opportunity to fully live up to its potential (there were some GREAT moments though...) That and I'd LOVE to see Jolene Blalock again in all her naked Vulcan glory (butt-crack, LMAO!)!

dam ya talking about old movies i never heard before.

ed- your right about us youngster we like new stuff even if its a reboot thats y a lot of us liked Friday the 13 and Freddy and we seen the old films but the newer on was better.

anil- nah Chris pine was more like flash combine with Steve rogers

I guess the point is kinda' moot 'cause the whole 'Next Gen' story arc (and all subsequent arcs) are in question thanks to the whole 'alterante timeline' twist of the new 'Star Trek' film. It would be interesting to see what (if anything) gets affected that far into 'the future'. What ever happened to the 'Time Police' introduced in 'Enterprise'? I thought they were there to stop something like this from ever happening.

tea-- Yeah Steve Rogers is not a goofy dick, even though those are admirable qualities.

loganoneil-- Time Police? Wow and I thought my trek knowledge was pretty vast.

LEEE777-- You can't tell these youngsters nothin'! They probably aren't even aware of the previous TRON movie.

Oh no crawling Apes. I hope not. I want walking Apes!

Great pics..I think this has a lot of potential, like the cast anyway.

I remember watching Escape when I was a kid and being completely traumatized when Cornelias and Zira are murdered.

Betty - LMAO! When it comes to science fiction, fantasy, comic books, etc., I am a vertiable wealth of trivial (meaning "useless") information. Take for example, did you know there's a 'lost' episode of Star Trek where the ship has a talent contest?



...I'm evil, I know.