Unproduced Planet Of The Apes sequel, Planet Of The Men, being developed as potential TV series
The original Planet Of The Men screenplay was written by Planet Of The Apes author Pierre Boulle
Aux News Planet of the Apes
The original Planet Of The Apes series is a weird artifact these days, going from enormous popularity to general obscurity in the decades since release, with pretty much only the first movie still having any kind of relevance—and that’s mostly just because of its ending, and maybe the Simpsons episode with the Planet Of The Apes musical. And yet the Planet Of The Apes brand is still valuable, which is why there have been two reboots since the original series ended that tried to modernize the concept (one a big flop, the other a fairly big hit that got two sequels).
But it might soon be time to revisit that original series, because Deadline is reporting that producers Uri Singer and Aimee Peyronnet have just picked up the rights to an even weirder artifact from the old Planet Of The Apes days: the original unproduced screenplay for a Planet Of The Apes sequel written by Pierre Boulle, the novelist behind the original Planet Of The Apes book (and The Bridge Over The River Kwai, but that’s not super relevant).
This unmade screenplay, which Boulle was asked to write after the movie adaptation of his book became a hit, is called Planet Of The Men, and it’s like a weird alternate universe version of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (the actual sequel that Hollywood ended up making) with an ending that is arguably darker than the one Beneath writer Paul Dehn came up with—where an atomic bomb is detonated, killing all life on the futuristic Earth.
According to the Planet Of The Apes fan wiki, Planet Of The Men would’ve covered nearly two decades of life among the apes and a society of rebel humans—led by Charlton Heston’s Taylor, who becomes sort of their messiah figure as he teaches them how to speak and take care of themselves. As conflicts between the two sides escalate, the apes start to regress to more animal-like behavior and the humans become more vicious and bloodthirsty.
When the humans overthrow Ape City and win the war, Taylor declares that the apes should all be put in cages and forced to entertain humans. The screenplay ends with famous ape Doctor Zaius locked up in a circus, struggling to say his own name. It’s no “everyone dies,” but god damn, it’s not an especially flattering assessment of humanity.
Singer and Peyronnet intend to turn Planet Of The Men into a TV show, but it’s not the only Pierre Boulle project they’ve picked up. Deadline says they also got the rights to The Virtues Of Hell, a novel about a soldier getting involved in the heroin trade when he tries to use drugs to treat his PTSD. The plan is to turn that one into a movie, but both of these seem pretty early (since only producers are on board at this point).
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“… and The Bridge Over The River Kwai, but that’s not super relevant.”Excuse me but I beg to differ. I did not know this connection – and this was an excellent film, too.(Thanks for informing me by the way!)
And Rod Serling wrote the PoTA screenplay, inventing the famous twist ending.Maybe that’s well known, but I just found out.
I wish I had been alive at the time because I gotta say that twist seems really obvious. For it to surprise you, you’d have to somehow believe that apes got to another planet or independently evolved there. It honestly doesn’t even feel like a twist to anyone involved except Charlton Heston. It’s been a while since I saw it so maybe I’m forgetting something. Was it really a twist ending?
The twist was famous long before I saw it, but yeah, if I hadn’t known the ending, I’d have assumed they landed on an Earth-like planet where humans had happened to have lost the evolution lottery, and thinking back, I think the Statue of Liberty scene still landed with me.Rod Serling wrote at least one Twilight Zone where that was the twist, but still.How humans could survive without being smart fits into suspension of disbelief.
Vonnegut did a good job describing the devolution of humans in Galpagos…
Zaius and a very few select apes knew and kept the other apes from finding out by declaring almost everything outside of Ape City (which was Astoria, Queens BTW) THE FORBIDDEN ZONE.
A lot of 20th century sci-fi just wasn’t that imaginative. Klingons were just white people with fancy eyebrows (and, occasionally, brown shoe polish on their faces.) Romulans were just Vulcans with v-shaped bangs, and Vulcans were just normal humans with pointy ears and straight bangs. Klaatu was just a white dude, full stop. And they all spoke English. Even the famous Star Wars cantina was mostly populated with whatever masks were around, including a werewolf, a bat, and the devil.
All to say, POTA’s twist seems like a foregone conclusion to modern viewers, but was genuinely surprising at the time of release.
Yes, the twist seems really obvious for you, now. There’s really no way you’d get a cold read on it, if you’re 40 or under. But back then…? Hardly anyone mainstream read the actual book, which reads more like Tim Burton’s movie. It’s been parodied to death since The Simpsons did it.And never mind the VHS/DVD/BRD releases having the ending on the goddamn cover.
It was definitely a twist ending. A rocket shop goes through a mysterious wormhole and crash lands on a mysterious planet dominated by another species, which gives the movie its name… there was no reason for audiences in 1968 to expect Earth.You can’t get away from scifi and fantasy these days, but back then it was actually new to the majority of audiences.
I never understood this either. THEY’RE SPEAKING FUCKING ENGLISH
“Actually, we’re speaking Rigellian. By coincidence, our languages are exactly the same.”
As opposed to all of those sf movies in those days where aliens all spoke a different language and the movies ended abruptly because nobody could understand each other.
You mean like Star Wars, where they had subtitles?
Which the aliens no doubt read! Seriously, the Star Wars way is a bit weird if you think about it — lots of aliens (and droids) understand the standard Galactic language (represented by English) but apparently can’t speak it — think Greedo, Chewbacca, R2D2. And likewise C3PO can understand R2’s beeping and Han Chewy’s grunts, but neither one beeps or grunts back.
Maybe the characters represented by human actors are actually some crazy weird alien that doesn’t have the proper mouth parts for droid/mammalian sounds
I guess. But even so, I can’t imagine that the voice synthesizer part of a droid would be that expensive. It seems dumb to create a thinking, feeling droid like R2D2 and not go to the minor effort to give it a voice.
With R2D2 it kind of makes sense, I guess. The whistle language could be a measure to keep pilots from getting too attached to their astromechs, which seem like they’d get killed pretty frequently. Also, it could be that even though droids have these amazing sci-fi brains with ample horsepower for a full range of emotion, under normal circumstances (i.e. not swept up in galactic adventure) they find complete Brave New World-level fulfillment in their programmed duties – so they never experience angst or ennui or any of those froofy things we’d see as signs of sentience.
I was a child when I first saw PotA. I did not know the twist, and my dad politely didn’t ruin it for me. It definitely held a punch.
Someone editied together the PotA movie into a Twilight Zone episode format, including a repurposed Sterling peice-to-camera spoken intro.http://theforbidden-zone.com/media/tzone.shtml
The ending of the original book isn’t nearly as good as Serling’s edit.
He did write a script, but not the one that was eventually filmed. Parts of it did make it to the screen though, including a version of his ending
Madness! Madness!
If I recall correctly, Boulle got full credit for the “Bridge” screenplay, even though he spoke no English at the time — because the writers who actually turned his novel into a screenplay were on the blacklist!
A planet where humans are the dominant species? Sounds bizarre as hell.
*dolphin clicks, whistles, clicks*
I think you meant “dolphin clits”
All things are about dolphin clits, ANathanofFillions. Except this.
I was thinking “whale boners” but I’m not going to kink shame.
What’s purple & veiny & lives in the sea?
My mother in-law!*rimshot*
Sir, again, this is an Arbys, and we don’t have a “Dolphin Clits Burger”.
Somebody get George C. Scott in here to translate for this guy!
Its a very human thought process to assume the dominant life on a planet is the most intelligent. If we were honest with ourselves we are really living on the Planet of the Insects, or bacteria
It should really be called Planet of The Humans .
Probably will be.
I think I’d prefer a planet of the anything over humans at this point. We suck.
What about a planet of puppies? That sounds awful
“Planet of the Clams? I love that movie!”
Well that’s really cool. Honestly was expecting them to play it safe like the way the Alien tv show sounds so far. Lean on that ol’ Apes nihilism and you really have something going on.
I am super intrigued in a way…but ummm…I don’t know quite how to say this.White supremacists liken Black people to apes…if you show them becoming the mythical “alpha males” and putting the apes “back in their place”…I guess I’m asking if this is going to air on Fox News? Because that ending signals to me why it wasn’t made…and it’s not because it was a downer.
Considering the not-so-very-subtle metaphor behind Planet of the Apes is race, that would mean the sequel would be about oppressed white people rising out of their shackles to free themselves from the oppression of minorities which seems both INCREDIBLY racist and massively guaranteed to be a major box office hit in certain parts of the country.
Yep. Or should I say CORRECT SNAGGLEPUSS EVEN
I dare the Woke Mob to try and CANCEL this movie!
I hope they will! I call you, spirits of the woke mob, join like voltron and strike down this heinous lameness. In the spirit of people who do not really know if they like Booker T. Washington, I call on you!
Thats the problem with it as an alegory , part of the premise is that the apes end up just as bad as the humans did.Which is great as a ‘power corrupts’ story , but a bit tricky when its supposed to relate to real world race relations.
Which I like because it would probably be true. We could live in a world run by puppies and they’d turn into corrupt, albeit cute, little monsters oppressing everyone and starting wars over chew toys.
Planet of the Apes is based on a French novel though. Although the French also have racism stemming from their time as a colonial power, it’s important to not be like Whoopi Goldberg and view everything from the narrow American view of race relations.
True, but it being an allegory of race is a pretty wide spread belief. The movie is American with a decidedly American bent
Don’t overthink it, Nathan. You’re already on thin ice with the dolphin tits.
Planet Of The Men This title sounds like a couple stoned guys going “dude, imagine Planet of the Apes but with the apes swapped with humans and I’d call it… Planet of… the Men.”“Whoa.”
What Paul Kinsey came up with right after “The Negron Complex”.
sounds more like someone flush with Hollywood money and all coked up
Taylor declares that the apes should all be put in cages and forced to entertain humans.Taylor would never do that to Zira and Cornelius, unless he went mad or something.
https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Planet_of_the_MenWell…he doesn’t… Also, potential spoiler alert?
Always frustrating when an article misquotes its own source.
Not quite sure how dark of a plot twist it is to reveal at the end of the movie that mankind kind of sucks.
Limp Bizkit, Slavery. The prosecution rests.
“They elected who president?! I’d rather elect Donald DUCK!”
The past six years has definitely been a real life version of a dark plot twist
“You maniacs! You blew it up! Oh, God damn you! God damn you all to Hell!” – me to the owners of the AV Club
“Oh shit! There goes the thread!”
The AV Clubnot an especially flattering assessment of humanity
Oh go watch Lifetime!
Or Real Housewives.
Anyone else looking forward to the new season of Hanging with Dr. Z in a week?
https://hangingwithdoctorz.com/
I know I am! Dr. Z is going to answer one of Rusty’s riddles this season, I just know it.
The original POTA is “obscure”? Yeah, no. The film is a science fiction classic—beyond just the ending and catch phrases. And the films that followed, though decreasing in quality, have each left a mark on pop culture.
Doesn’t sound particularly enjoyable. I prefer the film series, even the silly one that takes place in the ‘70s.
The silly one is my favorite.
“with pretty much only the first movie still having any kind of relevance—and that’s mostly just because of its ending”And that is how I knew the pop cache of the AV Club has diminished beyond revival.
Apologies, didn’t realize there was a huge discourse on Beneath or Escape from Planet of the Apes.But you are right, im sure Old AV Club would have brought those movies up atleast once a week!
the other a fairly big hit that got two sequelsNot to mention totally minimizing & glossing over what was probably the overall best (imho) trilogy of the 2010’s
It might be a generational thing. I know us old folks hold the movies in high esteem but I don’t know if the youths do. In the same way they don’t see Caddyshack as the peak of 20th century culture
“An irrelevant series that in the last decade produced a critically-acclaimed trilogy that took $1.7b at the box office. What a bunch of losers!”
Yes! What a silly thing to say, even for the author of this article. That whole series is so great, even the two that are kind of terrible.
I almost did a spit take when I read that line. I love 1-4 and 5 is alright but still it’s part of the family.Honestly, to this day when I hear the name “Taylor” I say it to myself like Nova. Yeah, maybe it’s some kind of weird tic but if people can say “nice” every damn time 69 is mentioned, then I can have this.
Even Battle For isn’t terrible or unwatchable, just cheap as hell.
OMG me too hahahahaha
What relevance? It’s not like 2022 Earth is a pandemic-ravaged madhouse whose very existence is threatened by deranged mutant assholes who worship nuclear weapons.
Thats a terrible story. So human goes to a future where apes are intelligent and humans are dumb and he wants to regress it all back to the way it was even though he knows the apes are able to understand what would be happening to them? Thats just taking the whole ”humans bad” thing too far.
As long as Gary Oldman’s in it.
Reprising his little person character from Tiptoes, I hope!
the Planet of Oldmen
Javier Bardem and Gary Oldman
in
No Country For Oldman
“Get your filthy, fleshy fingers off of me, you damn furless man!”
“I hate every ape i see, from Chimpan-A to Chimpan-zee…”
“Doctor Zaius Doctor Zaius!”
“ Oh my God! I was wrong,It was Earth all along…”
I love the original Planet of the Apes movies. Battle ends with the humans and apes finally coexisting in peace because of Caesar and not destroying the Earth.
This is a terrible idea.
Meh call me when it starts raining men, then I’ll say hallelujah
A planet where men evolved from men!?
In happier news, there will soon be a new season of “Hanging With Doctor Z,” and if you didn’t see the first season, head to YouTube right this instant: https://www.youtube.com/c/HangingwithDoctorZ
I’mma purist. Only the originals for me.I think I may be interested in the Planet of Men. If only because it shows man hasn’t learned.
Hell, in the original series, the apes are just as bad as humans.
I look forward to this series being cancelled just when everyone starts to enjoy it.
there should be an ape named Do-Nald; flabby, with a thinning mane of orange hair, and he ends up being a flamboyant populist villain… the movement of “making apes great again” gains traction…
I love the original, but even when I was ten and saw it when it first came out, I thought – “wait a sec, these apes are talking English, I wonder why he doesn’t think he’s on earth?”In the novel (which may or may not be good; it’s a translation and I read it a long time ago), the guy lands on NOT Earth, has to learn the apes’ language, gets on a space ship, heads home and sure enough, by THEN Earth has gone the same way. The whole story is framed with a couple of astronauts reading this account, and sure enough, THEY turn out to be apes.Anyway – Rod Serling could have (and should have) kept his ending, left it as Earth, but… holy moley, he could have put in a one-minute montage of Taylor learning the apes’ language. In fact I like to think he did just that, but the studio was too dumb to leave it in.
The script for the sequel can be found here:https://pota.goatley.com/scripts/planet_of_the_men.pdf
Actually Planet of the Men was aired, in Portuguese (called “Planeta dos Homens”), in Brazil, by Globo TV, the second largest television network in the world, right behind ABC (which was bought by Disney), from 1976 to 1982, it was a sketch show featuring three apes from a highly evolved ape planet tried to understand the illogical human civilization.