May 29th, 1998

Tony Gonzalez, of the Kansas City Chiefs maine skipper a charity event in order to film a small sequence in Planet of the Apes, under production of Oliver Stone.The Kansas City Star's Jeffrey Flannigan reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to star in the film.

____There are many problems with this bizarre rumor. First of all, James Cameron has yet to complete the script for the film. Also, Oliver Stone has categorically denied that he is currently involved in the film as producer. As for Arnold, he's still considering his next role. It may be possible that a test screening of some sort will be taking place, but this rumor is highly in question.

March 31, 1998

____"Planet of the Apes is definitely somewhere in my future," James Cameron stated to the Calgary Sun, indicating his probable involvement aswriter of the slowly upcoming project. "I have a better idea for a second True Lies than I do for a third Terminator, but there are also other projects I have been nurturing for a while now."

March 25, 1998

Australia's Sun Herald reports that Peter Doyle, effects supervisor of the upcoming film Matrix, revealed that while in Los Angeles last week he met with Fox executives regarding doing FX work on the James Cameron scripted Planet of the Apes remake. According to the article, Fox's Sydney Studio will host the film when filming begins sometime next year. Although unconfirmed, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still rumored for the lead role.

March 20, 1998

Cinescape Online reports that both Harrison Ford and Kevin Costner are not involved in the James Cameron production of Planet of the Apes. Costner has signed on to the feature Message in A Bottle with Paul Newman. Harrison Ford's agent relayed a definitive "Not true" to Cinescape regarding his involvement in the Apes flick.

March 19, 1998

At a recent luncheon featuring Oliver Stone and James Cameron, the filmmakers denied that they would be collaborating on Planet of the Apes.

February 18, 1998

A NewsWeek article confirms James Cameron's involvement as the scriptwriter and producer of Fox's upcoming Planet of the Apes remake. Cameron has additionally announced that he will not be directing Planet of the Apes or any films for a while, as he wishes to take a break after the grueling job he did on TITANIC.

January 26, 1998

Fox executives have informed James Cameron that he can move ahead with the much-delayed remake of Planet of the Apes. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first choice of Cameron to star in the remake, who is still shopping for his next film.

June 27th, 1997

I received an e-mail from someone who supposedly knows James Cameron. He claims that Cameron, who will be producing the film, has recently taken an interest in casting James Woods in the Zaius role. This may be due to his current role as yet another villan (Hades) in the film Hercules. This rumor seems to be nothing more than a crazed man's wish, but it is nevertheless interesting.

- Sent in by Vince

June 17th, 1997

A source from the May-June issue of Australian sci-fi magazine "Frontiers" reported that George Clooney has been approached to possibly replace Arnold as the lead in the film. It has also been brought to my attention that parts of the new movie will be shot at Elstree Studios in north London. - Sent in by Wes Knight

May 18th, 1997

"Hamm appears to have retained only the most basic premise from Terry Hayes awful version: Babies are being born very old, and scientists must figure out why, or the human race faces extinction.

____In Hamm's version, a spacecraft splashes down in NYC's harbor. Inside are an orangutan which is shot dead, and a pink blob which turns out to be the virus affecting the babies. A team of pilots and scientists are assembled and they take the ship back to its preprogrammed origin.

____The lead character is Alexander Troy, cleraly the Taylor figure, but renamed to serve a weak plot point later in the script. A female scientist accompanies him and falls in love with him (of course). Dodge is the Jamaican astronaut who suffers the same fate as the original's Landon, and Stewart still doesn't survive the trip, his (yes his) corpse discovered in one of the cooler written segments of the script.

____Arriving at the polar cap of a distant planet, the crew finds the speechless humans, get captured and separated until it's just Troy and the female scientist. They find an ape civilization, where the orangs, led by LORD Zaius, keep the others under their control through religion and politics. Zaius is a swaggering, virile "alpha male of alpha males", desribed as an "ape Hugh Hefner" and an "ape Bob Packwood" at various points in the story.

____Ultimately, we learn that this planet was once ruled by man, and that the apes have taken over after the humans fell victim to the same virus that was sent to earth. By receiving radio signals from earth, the orangs have swiped inventions, ideas, music and culture from earth. The orangs take credit for all of it, and have sent the virus to earth as a "vaccine". The female eventually finds a cure, they return to the ship, have a final battle with the apes, escape in Troy's ship, where they find Zaius sabotaging the air supply. Troy and Zaius battle, flying out an airlock where Trot kills Zaius. He is rescued by the female, and they head back to earth. Upon landing, they are horrified to discover that too much time has passed, and earth is now a planet of apes.

____Infinitely superior to Terry Hayes version, this one is still mired in utter silliness. A billboard is shown for Macaque Culkin in HOME ALONE. The SIMIANS, a cartoon family, is a popular show. The Statue of Liberty, at the fade out, has been recarved into the face of an ape. At one point Troy escapes and is recaptured by a circus who use him in their human act. The script has definite possibilities, but there is a fine line between social satire and parody, which the script trips over again and again. Hopefully they'll fix up the script or start over or scrap the project." - sent in by Soylent Phil

January 28, 1997

Army Archerd reports that Schwarzenegger's been involved with talks with Lightstorm Entertainment regarding the Apes film. Check out our 12/15/96 scoop. Maybe someone in Toronto can ask Robert Rodriguez if he is in discussions as well...

December 26, 1996

Screenwriter Sam Hamm, best known for his Batman, Batman Returns and his unproduced treatment for a Watchmen movie has written a new screenplay for this project. A scooper reports that he's seen a Hamm draft kicking around, dated January 12, 1996.

December 15, 1996

Who owns the rights to Planet of the Apes? Twentieth Century Fox. The rights to Predator? Fox. What studio has Arnold Schwarzenegger experienced his most profitable working relationship with? Fox. And the director who's helmed his most profitable movies? James Cameron.

____And which studio has Cameron's development company, Lightstorm Entertainment, made a $500 million production pact to produce and develop films with? Again, Fox. And Robert Rodriguez, the director of From Dusk Till Dawn, has just turned in to Fox his proposal for Predator 3, which is owned by Fox.

____Someone's heard something very interesting. "What if I were to say... 'Twentieth Century Fox presents a Lightstorm Entertainment Production of Robert Rodriguez film starring Arnold Schwarzengger Planet of the Apes. Produced by James Cameron. Coming to a theatre near you in Summer 1998." According to this source, it's coming your way.

October 31, 1996

This scooper worked last year at Stan Winston Studios, where he spent a large amount of his time on research and development work for the Apes project. "Of course, this was when Chris Columbus was still involved. After the R&D work was said to be complete all of the stuff just got shelved and we never really heard about it again. The makeup that was designed for the tests was really pretty impressive. Stan and his son made a demo reel of improvisational stuff in the makeup under the direction of CC. It was great."

July 31, 1996

The film may be in the process of being re-titled to Return of the Apes.

May 11, 1996

A rumor reaches us that Oliver Stone may be considering casting actor Ben Kingsley in the role of the scientist who travels back in time, and Arnold Schwarzennegger as a primitive man in the distant past.

January, 1996

Both Peter Jackson and Roland Emmerich (Independance Day) pass on the directing assignment. Fox still maintains that the film will be done.

November 1995

Chris Columbus finaly passes up on the directing film. Once again it enters development hell.

February, 1995

Noyce jumps ship on Apes to direct The Saint. Chris Columbus takes over the helm, re-writes script with Sam Hamm (Batman), gaining the interest of James Cameron who nearly enters the party to help produce.

January, 1995

Schwarzennegger approves Philip Noyce as director of project. $100 million budget approved, rumors say. Fox still leary about quality of the script.

March, 1994

Stone gets the interest of the Arnold Schwarzenegger. Inside info indicates that Fox expected a "Flintstones" type movie script, but instead got more of a "Terminator".

December, 1993

20th Century Fox gives the go-ahead on the project. Don Murphy, Jane Hamsher, Oliver Stone are set as producers for the film. Terry Hayes (screenwriter of The Road Warrior) is hired as the pensmith.

dernières nouvelles

mai 99 (source magazine S.F.X N°70)

Le réalisateur de Armagedddon Michael BAY devrait réaliser le remake de la planète des singes (à la place de James Cameron) la sortie du film est prévue pour l'été 2001 et Arnold Schwarzenneger est toujours sur ce projet en tant qu'acteur principal.

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