The Planet of the Apes

March 28, 2001 1:41 PM

The Planet of the Apes remake is slated for Summer 2001, and they now have a site with a teaser trailer. At first I was disappointed that there even was a remake in the works, since the original is a great classic, but when I heard that Tim Burton is directing (with a score by Danny Elfman) I thought maybe it's worth a second look.
posted by Sal Amander (16 comments total)

I wonder if Charlton Heston will have a cameo in this.
posted by doublehelix at 3:06 PM on March 28, 2001

Rumors are that good ol' Chuck will indeed toss a cameo, as an elder apesman. I'm still pretty 'eh' on this one, though. From the trailer it seems that Burton has jettisoned a lot of his style, so what's the point? So far, it looks more like a John McTiernan movie than anything else. Even Tim Roth's presence hasn't made this one appealing.
posted by videodrome at 3:41 PM on March 28, 2001

Get your hands off me you damn dirty ape !
posted by a3matrix at 4:09 PM on March 28, 2001

I'm trying to think of even one Tim Burton movie I liked. Well, I have to admit I liked his short, "Vincent," but mostly because it ended a lot faster than his feature work.
posted by kindall at 4:13 PM on March 28, 2001

They showed the trailer before Pollock here last week. One of the two old ladies sitting to my left remarked "Now that's an intellectual movie." The same woman later turned her head away from the screen when Pollock started urinating into the fireplace.
posted by gluechunk at 4:27 PM on March 28, 2001

They showed the trailer before Pollock here last week. One of the two old ladies sitting to my left remarked "Now that's an intellectual movie."

Intellectual movie? Isn't that a contradiction?
posted by dagnyscott at 4:46 PM on March 28, 2001

I found Tim's "reimagining" of Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to be inventive and entertaining. The poop has already been scooped that the ending is different (read the site linked above; it's does everything but just come right out and say what happens); the design looks, as one expects from a Burton movie, suitably otherworldly. I wasn't a huge fan of the originals, although I think I've seen them all, but I'm really looking forward to what Burton can do with this.
posted by m.polo at 5:00 PM on March 28, 2001

Nothing will ever top The Planet of the Apes: The Musical, as interpreted by The Simpsons.
posted by OneBallJay at 5:39 PM on March 28, 2001

A "great classic", Salamander? You mis-spelled "delightfully cheesy in retrospect, but painful at the time, excessively moralistic space opera". Just thought I'd point that out.

I think Burton's going to give us a fresh take on the material, that remains faithful to its spirit. The storyline hinted at is already much more complex, and there are characters that clearly weren't in the original.

I can only hope they've kept the line that a3matrix quoted ... perfect.
posted by dhartung at 7:34 PM on March 28, 2001

I still always liked the 2nd Apes movie better. The nuclear-scarred people worshipping the bomb and communicating with telepathy... what's not to love?
posted by stefnet at 8:04 PM on March 28, 2001

I wish they'd tried a version closer to Boule's novel. The only reason the ape society in the original movie was so primative was the 20th Century Fox couldn't afford the elaborate city sets the novel called for.
posted by darren at 8:38 AM on March 29, 2001

I still always liked the 2nd Apes movie better. ... what's not to love?

er, let's start with James Franciscus ...
posted by darren at 9:20 AM on March 29, 2001

Perhaps Burton can atone for the sins committed with "Mars Attacks." Perhaps.

Second that, accountingboy--of course, the actual title was "Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off!" ;)
posted by Skot at 9:27 AM on March 29, 2001

The second movie is the only one not to star Roddy McDowall.
posted by darren at 12:25 PM on March 29, 2001

I found Tim's "reimagining" of Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to be inventive and entertaining.

Plus, Johnny Depp looked really cute in it. Not that that was your reason for liking it M.Polo, but it added a lot to the experience for me.

Some things are so much of their time that they shouldn't be remade. There's nothing in the Apes movies that cries out for a fresh treatment. It's not like Kurosawa remaking Macbeth and King Lear.

Remember the good old days when a theatre would show the entire Apes series for five bucks? And then remember the remake of Lost in Space? Someday, someone's going to remake Plan Nine from Outer Space, and I will weep.
posted by anapestic at 1:01 PM on March 29, 2001

It'll make a ton of cash. Sleepy Hollow made $ 100 million in North America. So this "re-imagining" of an iconic film will gross north of $ 150 million in North America.
posted by edelstone at 9:32 AM on March 30, 2001