The top minds over at Disney have decided that the world doesn’t have enough franchise reboots or remakes because, according to Screen Rant, Disney is considering to continue the Planet of the Apes franchise.
The original Planet of the Apes movie came out in 1968 and was based on the French science fiction novel La Planète des singes. Its script was co-written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, and starred Charlton Heston as an astronaut who crash-lands on a world whose dominant species are sentient apes. After the original movie’s release the Planet of the Apes franchise took off, leading to several direct sequels and a spinoff TV series across the 1970’s.
A few decades later, Tim Burton directed a remake of the original Planet of the Apes movie starring Mark Wahlberg, only for it to be received negatively by critics. Eventually the series was rebooted again in 2011 with prequel movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring Andy Serkis in mo-cap as the original ape Caesar. Rise, as well as its two sequels, all received critical acclaim.
When Disney took over 20th Century Fox this spring, they gained access to its major franchises including Alien, the Fox-owned Marvel characters, and the Planet of the Apes series. Like their other recently acquired franchises Disney has plans to utilize the Planet of the Apes brand, apparently by planning to continue the reboot narrative. It might be interesting to see what Disney does with this franchise, but I’d much prefer they made a Planet of the Apes Musical like the one in the Simpsons! Too bad Phil Hartman is gone though.
Leave a Comment