Hurray! Just what I wanted for Christmas!
And I'm not kidding, either...
http://chud.com/articles/articles/17205 ... Page1.html
According to Fox studio head Tom Rothman...
We are very close at Fox on a new Apes script- this one a kind of prequel story before the first story, with a return to the social thematics that mark the first one, but with an entirely contemporary setting - Earth 2009.
RISE OF THE APES - Casting News
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
RISE OF THE APES - Casting News
Last edited by AndyDursin on Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Here's that website's original report from some weeks back on this script treatment...
But right now, in the halls of Fox, there is another new version of Planet of the Apes that has been kicking around for the last year. It's not a sequel to the Burton film, and it's not another remake of the original. To the general audience it's a prequel to Planet of the Apes, but for the initiated it's something totally different.
It's a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
Yup. It's the story of Caesar, the ape who said no, the first ape with speech who started the events that led to a world where monkeys were on top and humans were dumb beasts.
Things are different in this script, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, which is called Genesis: Apes. Fans will know that Caesar in Conquest is the result of a massive temporal paradox - his parents escaped to 1973 from a far future Earth. Further, Conquest takes place in a dystopian 'future' - 1991 - while Genesis: Apes is set in the modern day.
In this version Caesar is the result of a genetic scientist fooling around with the nature of things. When the baby monkey exhibits intelligence and the ability to talk, he takes the cuddly thing home to his wife, who is unable to bear children. Things go surprisingly well for a number of years until Caesar grows up and sees mommy getting attacked. The dutiful son steps in and accidentally kills the attacker.
Here's where it takes off. In a scene paralleling Charlton Heston in the cage in the original Planet of the Apes, Caesar ends up in custody at an Ape Conservatory where he and the other apes are abused mercilessly. Caesar finds himself a primate without a world - he's as smart as humans but will never be one of them (and is in fact tortured by them) and he's initially rejected by his monkey brethren.
You're on Caesar's side, understanding where this poor outcast is coming from. But then the script gets really ballsy and, just like in Conquest, Caesar begins a campaign to unite the apes and overthrow human society. And his plan isn't a Martin Luther King Jr series of marches, speeches and sit ins - Caesar and his apes take to the streets violently.
But right now, in the halls of Fox, there is another new version of Planet of the Apes that has been kicking around for the last year. It's not a sequel to the Burton film, and it's not another remake of the original. To the general audience it's a prequel to Planet of the Apes, but for the initiated it's something totally different.
It's a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
Yup. It's the story of Caesar, the ape who said no, the first ape with speech who started the events that led to a world where monkeys were on top and humans were dumb beasts.
Things are different in this script, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, which is called Genesis: Apes. Fans will know that Caesar in Conquest is the result of a massive temporal paradox - his parents escaped to 1973 from a far future Earth. Further, Conquest takes place in a dystopian 'future' - 1991 - while Genesis: Apes is set in the modern day.
In this version Caesar is the result of a genetic scientist fooling around with the nature of things. When the baby monkey exhibits intelligence and the ability to talk, he takes the cuddly thing home to his wife, who is unable to bear children. Things go surprisingly well for a number of years until Caesar grows up and sees mommy getting attacked. The dutiful son steps in and accidentally kills the attacker.
Here's where it takes off. In a scene paralleling Charlton Heston in the cage in the original Planet of the Apes, Caesar ends up in custody at an Ape Conservatory where he and the other apes are abused mercilessly. Caesar finds himself a primate without a world - he's as smart as humans but will never be one of them (and is in fact tortured by them) and he's initially rejected by his monkey brethren.
You're on Caesar's side, understanding where this poor outcast is coming from. But then the script gets really ballsy and, just like in Conquest, Caesar begins a campaign to unite the apes and overthrow human society. And his plan isn't a Martin Luther King Jr series of marches, speeches and sit ins - Caesar and his apes take to the streets violently.
Why not? They remake everything else. Better to remake something that wasn't exactly a box office buster. It doesn't surprise me- can't wait to see the political/scientific subtext they'll put into this one. Lol....honestly, I would rather see this remade (as obscure as it is to the general public) than Halloween or The Omen or some of the other junk film companies have released in recent memory.
-
Paul MacLean
- Posts: 7060
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:26 pm
- Location: New York
-
John Johnson
- Posts: 6091
- Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:28 pm
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Looks like they have a director lined up, working from the same script -- wasn't crazy about this concept before. Wonder if it's being retooled...
http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/wyatt-m ... x-prequel/
http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/wyatt-m ... x-prequel/
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
-
Monterey Jack
- Posts: 9742
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 am
- Location: Walpole, MA
-
Paul MacLean
- Posts: 7060
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:26 pm
- Location: New York
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
James Franco has been cast as the lead -- a young scientist caught in the middle of the action or something like that.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/exclusi ... -the-apes/
http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/exclusi ... -the-apes/
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34276
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Excellent cast filling this one out -- looks like Brian Cox has the Severn Darden role (sorta, lol).
James Franco
John Lithgow (as his scientist dad)
Frieda Pinto
Brian Cox
Andy Serkis (performing Caesar -- another ape role!)
Brian Cox is set to reunite with "The Escapist" director Rupert Wyatt for 20th Century Fox's "Rise of the Apes," an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.
Cox is in final negotiations to play the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there.
James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow and Andy Serkis star in the "Planet of the Apes" prequel that Wyatt is directing from a script by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa.
The writers will also produce with Chernin Entertainment's Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark.
Set in present day San Francisco, the origin story deals with the aftermath of man's experiments with genetic engineering that lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.
A chimp named Caesar (Serkis) leads the uprising among the apes after having been raised by Lithgow and Franco's father-and-son scientist characters.
Pinto plays a primatologist who helps Franco.
WETA digital is rendering photo-realistic apes for the first time in the franchise, as opposed to using costumed actors.
Cox recently starred in "The Good Heart" opposite his "L.I.E." co-star Paul Dano. He is currently filming "The Veteran" with Toby Kebbell, and will next appear in Summit's action-thriller "Red" this October. He is represented by IFA Talent Agency and Insight.
"Rise of the Apes" is scheduled to take over theaters on June 24, 2011.
James Franco
John Lithgow (as his scientist dad)
Frieda Pinto
Brian Cox
Andy Serkis (performing Caesar -- another ape role!)
Brian Cox is set to reunite with "The Escapist" director Rupert Wyatt for 20th Century Fox's "Rise of the Apes," an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.
Cox is in final negotiations to play the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there.
James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow and Andy Serkis star in the "Planet of the Apes" prequel that Wyatt is directing from a script by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa.
The writers will also produce with Chernin Entertainment's Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark.
Set in present day San Francisco, the origin story deals with the aftermath of man's experiments with genetic engineering that lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.
A chimp named Caesar (Serkis) leads the uprising among the apes after having been raised by Lithgow and Franco's father-and-son scientist characters.
Pinto plays a primatologist who helps Franco.
WETA digital is rendering photo-realistic apes for the first time in the franchise, as opposed to using costumed actors.
Cox recently starred in "The Good Heart" opposite his "L.I.E." co-star Paul Dano. He is currently filming "The Veteran" with Toby Kebbell, and will next appear in Summit's action-thriller "Red" this October. He is represented by IFA Talent Agency and Insight.
"Rise of the Apes" is scheduled to take over theaters on June 24, 2011.