Discuss: Do We Need Another ‘Planet of the Apes’ Reboot?

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 3, 2008

This week’s Monday discussion might be a loaded question, as the reboot in question isn’t exactly what you might think it is. In fact, as Devin Faraci at CHUD reports, the Planet of the Apes reboot that is currently being kicked around isn’t (a) tied to the Tim Burton reboot or (b) a remake of the original Planet of the Apes film. It is, in fact, a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the 1972 J. Lee Thompson directed film that served as a prequel to the 1968 original. It tells the story of Caesar, the first ape with speech who started the events that led to the world of monkey-dominance. But as Devin points out, the new script that was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, which is titled Genesis: Apes, is a bit different from Conquest:

It’s like Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which brilliantly modeled its ape riot scenes on the Watts Riots that had happened just a few years before. But Conquest was set in a future where America was ruled by a fascist society. Genesis: Apes is set today, in this world. The regime that Caesar overthew in Conquest was made up of bad guys. The Caesar of Genesis: Apes is coming after you.

As well, Devin makes a very compelling argument as to why this direction would be the way to bring the Planet of the Apes franchise back to life:

It’s the perfect way to get the franchise back up and running. Everybody knows that the Planet of the Apes used to be Earth. Everybody knows that the mute humans are our distant descendants. Everybody knows the Statue of Liberty is buried in the sand. So just skip all that – get to something new. That was one of the major problems with the Burton version, that it tried to recapture the shock of the original, the most spoiled movie of all time. But Genesis: Apes lets us get back into this world of apes and do what the four sequels to the original did – craft great science fiction parables that had gut puncher endings.

Having read these thoughts, I would tend to agree. Nothing would be worse than another attempt to reboot the original Planet of the Apes. Tim Burton already tried that and for the most part, it was mediocre at best. The idea of re-imagining Conquest of the Planet of the Apes however, sounds like it could be a lot of fun. What is interesting — and I think this is a point that Devin too was trying to make — is that so many people get caught up in the first film, forgetting that there were four others that were all equally as good. Should Fox choose to go in this direction, I think I would be able to get behind that, at least on the basis of concept.

What do you think? Would you be in for another Planet of the Apes movie based on the story described above?

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