It started with a vision by French author Pierre Boulle. La Planète des Singes, or Planet of the Apes, was published in 1963 and adapted into a movie starring Charlton Heston just five years later. It depicts a world where apes are the dominant species, and humans mere savages.
The first movie, taking the title of the book, was a critical and commercial success and the ending went down in movie history as containing one of the eeriest and most unexpected plot twists.
Shortly after the movie’s release the sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, was planned. With the rejection of script treatments by Pierre Boulle and Rod Serling – the latter a co-writer on the first movie and the creator of The Twilight Zone – it now seems obvious that it could not match the quality of the first. Nevertheless, the movie was a hit at the box office.
The success left everyone wanting more, a trend that continues in Hollywood to this day, and another sequel was planned. Escape from the Planet of the Apes was released in 1971, and better received by critics.
Its box office performance, while dwindling, was still strong enough to warrant another sequel, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. While not a great hit with critics, it mirrored the box office success of the former instalment and, along with its open ending, promised yet another sequel.
The filmmakers knew that Battle for the Planet of the Apes was to be the last instalment and leaving a trail of poor reviews in its wake, perhaps it was time for the franchise to bid farewell.
Its departure from the big screen did not stop the spawning of two TV series, one a short-lived and unsuccessful live action adaptation; the other, an animated series titled Return to the Planet of the Apes.
After the latter ended in 1975, the franchise remained dormant in terms of fresh movie or TV additions. However, it stayed alive through books, comics, toys and video games, as well as re-edits of the TV series.
It was in 2001 that the apes returned to the big screen in a re-imagination by Tim Burton, also titled Planet of the Apes. The movie was praised for its special effects, but failed in practically every other respect, seemingly dooming the long-running and popular franchise.
With the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, the franchise was not only rebooted, but rescued. Taking it back to the origin of the franchise’s story, the movie was a hit with critics and viewers alike, and was groundbreaking in its use of motion-capture performance in bringing the apes to life.
Three years later a sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, was released, picking up the story and reuniting viewers with the chimpanzee Caesar, who was introduced in the previous instalment. With rumours flying about another sequel, the franchise remains as strong and influential as ever.