Here’s where I get to go full-out fanboy. Since I was a child, Planet of the Apes has been my favorite movie franchise. Sure, the first of the Star Wars movies is okay, and I guess there’s something to be said for four or five of those Star Trek films, but Planet of the Apes will forever be where my beating SF heart lies. Heck, I even like the Tim Burton one, and I’m not at ALL jealous that another writer at BOOM STUDIOS is creating a new POTA comic book.
Last night, I saw the trailer for the new movie, and I messed my pants…. I mean in a good way.
Oh, this movie can put its stinking paws ALL over me.
As readers of this blog may know, I edited, art-directed, and co-wrote a POTA miniseries called REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES in 2006 for Mr. Comics, chronicling the rise of the apes after the events of the 4th film of the original series, CONQUEST.
The cover art to Revolution #1, layout by your humble blogger - masterfully painted by Denis Rodier
I’ve read all the books and novelizations, I own every movie, every TV episode (live action and animated), a heck of a lot of the toys and collectibles, and I’ve even been made into a minor character from the franchise retroactively (see below, or go here).
But that trailer made me jump up and down like a giddy schoolboy.
I have too much work to do, but I’m sitting here playing it over and over, and clapping my hands every time. Everything is just right. Well, except for the fact that that robotic-wax-figure-Oscar-host James Franco was accidentally cast in it, but everything has to have at least one flaw, or it would offend the gods.
Is it wrong of me to be this happy?
Ty the Guy. Busy grooming the nits out of my neighbor’s hair.
Here now, your POTA bonus moment, from Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes by Rich Handley: (Available from Hasslein Books)
Ty Templeton's ART LAND!! 
So, seriously, it is hard to determine from your blog entry this time: do you really like POTA or not?
Cheers!
Steven Willis
XOWComics.com
I know right?!
The SFX looks wicked and I’m loving how the makers said it’s going to be more emotional instead of the story being driven by action and events. I’m down for a well done PLANET OF THE APES re-boot.
I might not be as knowledgable as you when it comes to POTA, but I’ve always maintained that it is the best franchise that accurately (most of the time) and awesomely portrays a time paradox. Meaning we’ve had films that start, then prequels/or sequels are made that explain or set into motions things from the past. But i’ve found POTA to be one franchise that doesn’t follow a linear sequel technique of storytelling but the story gets more exciting and jaw dropping with each subsequent film, while making the consequences and repercussions of the films before it, that much more awesome because of how the new films tie into it.
I wonder though: this film is obviously a remake / reimagining of CONQUEST… however, the trailer seems to imply that it’ll be a standalone. (for now) So are there any plans for a new rebooted franchise starting with RISE… maybe?
If so… how do you feel about that? How do I?
I wanna watch them all… again… now!
I feel that any POTA film is good news. I may be alone in this, but I loved the Burton movie, and even had a theory about how it tied into the original universe. I wrote it up as the original plot for the Mr. Comics mini-series we did, but Fox wouldn’t let me run with it, after originally saying okay, as they definitely didn’t want the new and old franchises to mix. Our original plan was that Thade (who clearly returns to Earth at the end of the 2001 movie) and Caesar battle it out for Ape supremacy in the 21st Century, with both of them ending up as early versions of the Lawgiver. Caesar was the gentle Lawgiver, who wrote that ape shall not kill ape, and Thade the one that said “beware the beast man”. (Yeah, I know neither of them are orangutans). Ah, don’t get me started…
This movie looks like a re-boot, yes. But they’ve rebooted Star Trek like seven times, and except for Voyager, I loved them all. (Voyager was saved by the Doctor, Seven of Nine, Paris and Tuvok, but I could have done without the rest of them).
Well thanks for that Ty. First time I’ve seen the trailer and now my pants are in the wash too. It looks freaking excellent. Escape was the first movie I remember seeing at the cinema and I’ve seen all of them dozens of times now. I too liked Burton’s movie although the ending lost me a bit. This looks brain explodingly good though.
“Brain-explodingly good”… I see we have another Douglas Adams fan in the room. How mind-bleedingly wonderful.
I’m not terribly thrilled with the typical Deep Blue Sea/Jurassic Park/Andromeda Strain/Frankenstein scenario of some experiment going horribly wrong. It’s been done to death. I would have preferred something more along the lines of what we learned about the history of the deaths of dogs and cats in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
I drew one POTA mini-series for Malibu years ago and had an idea for another one that would have explained how the disease/bug/virus/whatever that killed all of the cats and dogs was also what made all of the apes smarter. Caesar would have accelerated the process as he was still a carrier of a mutated version of the illness from the future. So you would have had that whole chicken and egg time paradox thing going….. “Would the apes have become so smart as to overthrow humanity WITHOUT Caesar?” Stuff like that. The story would have continued far in the future and tied into the “Forbidden Zone” series that I drew. I think it would have been fun… but that’s just me. 😛
However, I will say that the movie LOOKS FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!! And I am really looking forward to it. I will reserve ultimate judgement on the overall story until after I have watched the whole thing in the theatre.
— LJK
Leonard: I knew we were Star Trek Brothers, but I forgot we were POTA brothers as well. I’ll have to dig that miniseries out and re-read it now. Yeah, the science-gone-amok story has been beaten into the ground, but then again, POTA has had a few turns at bat over the years (to badly mix meta metaphors) so it’s all a retread no matter what you do. I’m in the can’t-wait zone for this movie, no matter how much it features James Franco.
Cool blog. The ANSA PSA link has been made covertly classified…any new links?