Of course, if Darwin were around in 1963, when French author Pierre Boulle's literary masterpiece La planète des singes (French for Monkey Planet, according to translator Xan Fielding, a noted British writer who also translated Boulle's other famous novel, The Bridge over the River Kwai, into English), more known today as Planet Of The Apes -- about a futuristic planet dominated by apes who talk and think like humans -- was first published, a best-selling novel that would spawn a successful show business franchise five years later, he might have a lot to think about. But then, both Boulle's novel and the subsequent films and TV shows it inspired have certainly also given several generations of audiences who've been entertained by them much to think about, too -- one of many testaments to how and why the science fiction genre that has flourished in mass media for over a century has both influenced and changed the real world that we live in.

By the early-1960's, Pierre Boulle was already a popular author in not only his native France, but also the rest of the world, thanks mostly to his World War II novel The Bridge over the River Kwai, first published in 1952, and which inspired British filmmaker David Lean's Academy Award-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai five years later. Boulle, a World War II veteran who was now able to write his own ticket since becoming a successful author, began to write what would become Planet Of The Apes, combining science fiction with social commentary. In Boulle's original novel, three Frenchmen take off in a spaceship that can travel at nearly the speed of light as they explore outer space -- ultimately ending up on an Earth-like planet that they name Soror (Latin for sister), which is much like our actual planet, but with one difference: this planet is run by talking apes who prove to be more advanced in terms of intelligence, while the human population whom they hunt, capture, and use for scientific experiments is primitive, just like the prehistoric humans who existed on our world centuries ago! Ulysse Mérou, one of the Frenchmen who lands on Soror, and who ends up becoming the sole survivor of the trio landing on the planet, gets captured by his ape captors, and winds up the subject of scientific experiments conducted by some of the planet's chimpanzee scientists, including Zira and her fiancé Cornelius, who end up being convinced of Ulysse's intelligence; however, trying to convince the orangutans that run the planet's ape government, including elderly scientist Dr. Zaius, is a different matter.

Ulysee ends up befriending a primitive young woman named Nova (who ends up becoming the mother of their newborn child) -- and later on in the book, learn the truth about Soror's past after coming across an archaeological dig which helps to reveal how the planet ended up in its present state, a chilling example of what is referred to as dystopia (which refers to both the horrible conditions and way of life in certain parts of the world). Naturally, Dr. Zaius and his fellow orangutans, upon learning the truth, decide to eliminate all of Soror's humans, which eventually prompts Ulysse and his new family to blast off in the spaceship that brought him here and eventually head back to Earth -- now ruled by talking and thinking apes just like those on Soror!

Needless to say, Boulle's novel became a global literary sensation when it was first published in 1963, when the world we live in was already changing greatly, due in part to the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union that would result in the former country putting a man on the moon by decade's end -- but then, science fiction in the 1960's was already reflecting the tempo of the times, including the advances in technology that were already making outer space travel a reality. But it would take Hollywood to immortalize Planet Of The Apes even further.

Arthur P. Jacobs had already proven his worth as a Hollywood film producer towards the end of the 1960's -- his first producing effort was the all-star comedy What A Way To Go! (20th Century Fox, 1964), followed by a movie musical version of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Doolittle (Fox, 1967). In 1966, Jacobs' production company and 20th Century Fox teamed up to co-produce Planet Of The Apes, and were determined to make it as a serious science fiction film and not as a camp humor-filled quickie. Both Jacobs and Fox scored several major coups by getting Charlton Heston, already a proven box office star as well as an Academy Award-winner (for the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur), to star in the movie -- and film and TV writer Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) to write the screenplay, though the film's final draft would be written by screenwriter Michael Wilson (who won one of his two Oscars for co-writing the script for The Bridge on the River Kwai roughly a decade before); Heston would prove his show business clout by getting Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film -- both men had previously worked together on the costume epic The War Lord (Universal, 1965). Mort Abrahams, who would join the film's production crew as associate producer, produced a short demo film featuring Heston and several actors (including Edward G. Robinson as Dr. Zaius) made up to look like humanoid apes, courtesy of then-Fox head makeup artist Ben Nye, and presented in a serious and convincing manner that would reflect the equally-serious tone that Jacobs was aiming for. It was fellow makeup artist John Chambers who would improve upon the ape makeup that Nye originated in the test reel -- Chambers' makeup innovations would prove to be a benchmark in not only that particular profession, but also the entertainment industry as a whole.

With Heston already on board to star in Planet Of The Apes, other co-stars signed on to act in the film -- including Roddy McDowall as Cornelius, Oscar-winner Kim Hunter as Zira (Cornelius' fiancée in the original novel -- later elevated to the role of wife in future sequels), and veteran stage, film, and TV actor Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius (a role originally designated for Edward G. Robinson, until he bowed out due to both the heavy make-up and the long hours that it needed to apply it). Other co-stars in the film included veteran film and TV actor James Whitmore (as one of the orangutan leaders), and Linda Harrison (who played Nova), the latter then-married to then-Fox production chief Richard Zanuck (the son of studio co-founder Darryl).

The first Planet Of The Apes film that would appear in movie theaters in early-February 1968 was a bit different from Pierre Boulle's original novel -- for one thing, the three Frenchmen who traveled to Soror in the novel would become three time-traveling American astronauts in the movie (with Heston playing their leader, Colonel George Taylor), who ended up wearing primitive clothing later on in the film (unlike the Frenchmen who were naked for most of the novel); in truth, there were really four astronauts in the film's opening scenes -- but its sole female crew member died when the spaceship carrying it landed on the ape-dominated planet in the late-40th Century (the year 3978, to be precise). Another difference lies in the film's primitive sets, unlike the futuristic settings in Boulle's novel -- the decision to go along with the primitive sets had more to do with reducing design and production costs than the production team's creative imagination. Also, in the film, the apes spoke perfect English -- whereas in the original novel, they spoke a totally different language.

But it would be the film' final scene, conceived by Rod Serling -- which would not only be different from the ending in Boulle's novel -- but would also prove to be one of the most unforgettable in film history. Not long after Taylor, Cornelius, Zira, and Nova discover evidence in the Forbidden Zone, located near the ocean, that proved that intelligent humans once dominated the Earth-like planet before the apes took over, Taylor and Nova depart on horseback -- only to come across what's left of the Statue of Liberty, half-buried on the beach, as Taylor learns that he's been on Earth all along, the same Earth that was devastated by centuries of war before the apes conquered it, prompting him to utter one of the film's most unforgettable lines: "You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!" (Another of the film's other memorable lines -- also uttered by Taylor, and which shocks the planet‘s ape population -- was: "Take your stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!"; that line is ranked #66 in the American Film Institute's top hundred film lines of all time.)

Planet Of The Apes was a hit with both critics and audiences, and one of 1968's highest-grossing films, along with another sci-fi classic, director Stanley Kubrick's film version of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was a bit more optimistic in terms of its storyline as opposed to the grim dystopia-type future depicted in Planet Of The Apes. It also remains one of the best films of not only Charlton Heston's career, but also those of his co-stars -- especially Roddy McDowall, a show business veteran since his days as a child actor in the 1940's, who would be undeniably linked to the film and the franchise it helped to spawn for decades to come, even more so than Heston. The film won two Academy Award nominations for Jerry Goldsmith's original musical score and Morton Haack's costumes -- and won a special Oscar for makeup artist John Chambers' contribution to the film, the second time that a Hollywood makeup artist had received this honor. (The first was in 1965, when longtime MGM makeup artist William Tuttle won a special Oscar for his work on director George Pal's The Seven Faces Of Dr. Lao [1964].)

The success of Planet Of The Apes -- and its surprise ending -- would soon set the stage for its first sequel, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, released in late-May 1970, over two years after that of its predecessor's. Using the final scenes from Planet Of The Apes as the sequel's prologue, associate producer Mort Abrahams and British screenwriter Paul Dehn came up with what would be the story's overall plot, for which Dehn would write the screenplay that director Ted Post would bring to life on film. Not long after the opening credits, which are transposed over footage of George Taylor and Nova exploring the Forbidden Zone on horseback -- Brent (James Franciscus), the sole survivor of a two-man spaceship crew whose vehicle crashed in another section of the area after traveling forward in time (and at first, unaware that he's on the ape-dominated Earth), comes across Nova, who has Taylor's metal I.D. tag, as the two head for Ape City. (The scene in which Brent's spaceship ends up on the future Earth also contains a continuity error, in which he tells his dying skipper that the year is 3955 -- when, in the first Planet Of The Apes film, Taylor and his crew returned to Earth in 3978.) The film‘s storyline, which continued with Ape City's gorilla city invading the Forbidden Zone, and Brent and Nova coming across an underground cavern that hides what's left of New York City (located within the Forbidden Zone), now occupied by its surviving occupants who possesses telepathic powers as a result of being exposed to centuries of radioactive fallout (and which has also left them both skinless and horribly scarred) -- and who worship a still-intact nuclear weapon -- would end with the weapon itself detonated (courtesy of Taylor), destroying both the earth and everybody -- both human and ape -- living on it, though Taylor, Brent, and Nova are gunned to death minutes before the planet blows up. Reportedly, Charlton Heston, who reprised his role as Taylor, came up with the idea for the film's final scene -- hoping it wouldn't lead to future sequels. In that respect, the success of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes would prove Heston wrong.

Roddy McDowall didn't reprise his role of Cornelius in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes -- mainly because he was busy in London directing Ava Gardner in the horror film Tam-Lin (American-International, 1970); British actor David Watson ended up taking on the role of the simian scientist. But as McDowall was working on Tam Lan, he was unaware that he'd soon reprise his role as Cornelius.

At the end of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, the earth was destroyed, which might have brought a logical end to the film series. However, inspired by its success at the box office, the film's final scene would instead serve as a springboard for the third film of the series, and certainly one of its better sequels: Escape From The Battle Of Apes, released in late-May 1971. The film, directed by one-time actor Don Taylor and scripted by Paul Dehn, focuses on Cornelius and Zira, as they and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo), a fellow simian scientist, salvage and repair the spaceship that brought George Taylor and his crew to 40th Century Earth and blast off into outer space before the planet blows up -- with the shock wave resulting from Earth's destruction sending both spaceship and passengers backward through time to the 20th Century, where they end up secluded, first at a military base, then at the Los Angeles Zoo, where they meet two L.A.-based scientists (Bradford Dillman and Natalie Trundy -- the latter actor who appeared in all four Apes sequels and who was married to producer Arthur P. Jacobs) who learn of the apes' advanced power of speech, and where Dr. Milo ends up killed by a non-civilized gorilla. By that time, a Presidential Commission has been formed to not only investigate the return of Taylor's spaceship, but also how Cornelius and Zira ended up in it -- after revealing their ability to speak in front of the Commission, the simians are treated first as guests, then as celebrities. However, Cornelius and Zira start to suffer a reversal of fortune, when the latter becomes pregnant with their child, causing scientist and Presidential advisor Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden) to fear that Earth will be dominated by talking and thinking apes -- a fear that increases when he learns from Zira, via a truth serum injected into her, what she and Cornelius didn't mention before the Commission (including Earth‘s eventual destruction). As a result, the President of the United States (William Windom) reluctantly orders Cornelius and Zira's sterilization and the termination of their unborn child -- which only increases the apes' desperate plight, especially after Cornelius accidentally kills an Army orderly, and he and Zira make their escape minutes later. From there, the two apes hide at a traveling circus run by the kindly Senor Armando (Ricardo Montalban), where Zira gives birth to her and Cornelius' son Milo (later renamed Caesar) -- near the film's end, Cornelius and his family are gunned to death by both Dr. Hasslein (who is also shot to death) and a Marine sniper. But by the final scene, we find out that the infant chimpanzee who was murdered wasn't Milo -- who, unknown to the world, is now being cared for by Armando, and who utters the film's final lines: "Mama? Mama?"

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes explored many of the most important hot button social issues that were relevant in the late-1960's and early-1970's (and remain so today), including women's rights and scientific experimentation on animals, within the context of its main plot, much like the relevant issues that existed in H.G. Wells' time when he wrote such sci-fi classics like The Time Machine and The War Of The Worlds. As proof of how the film explored the issues that 1970's movie audiences had to deal with in the real world, many of its scenes were inspired by incidents in Pierre Boulle's original novel -- including Zira getting pregnant in the film, which parallels that of Nova's in the novel.

In addition, Escape From The Planet Of The Apes revealed how and why the earth's ape population eventually came to control the planet, an example of what's known in mass media as retroactive continuity -- as Cornelius explains later on in the film (and according to history scrolls that were kept a secret from his fellow apes), it started with an outer space virus that killed every dog and cat on Earth (though we never find out if the virus killed other pet animals like birds, hamsters, etc. -- or if it affected any other Earth animals, including apes), which resulted in the planet's human population adopting the apes first as pets, then as servants, the latter position eventually bordering on slavery -- until a gorilla called Aldo rebelled against his human master by saying "No," eventually resulting in him and the other apes overthrowing all of humankind. Of course, this plot twist, as conceived by screenwriter Paul Dehn, did have several flaws in terms of continuity -- for one thing, in the first two Apes films, Cornelius was as much in the dark as the rest of 40th Century Earth's ape population as far as the events leading up to them dominating the planet were concerned, something that he failed to explain in the third Apes film. Also, in the first two films, there was no mention of the apes celebrating the anniversary of Aldo's defiant move that would result in the rebellion against the human race.

Continuity glitches aside, Escape From The Planet Of The Apes was a box office success like its predecessors -- and would bring about the next film in the series, which would prove to be far more darker and violent than the first three films: Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, released in late-June 1972; the fourth film was also the first (and only) in the series to get a PG-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America for its graphic violence, unlike the other films which received G-ratings.

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns Of Navarone) and written by Paul Dehn, building upon the plot twist introduced in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes concerning the space virus that eliminated every dog and cat on Earth that would lead to humans adopting apes as pets and servants, takes place in the United States of America in the year 1991 (which has since come and gone in the real world, making this film sort of dated), when the country has become a totalitarian dictatorship (perhaps inspired by George Orwell's 1984), partly to prevent the world's ape population from overthrowing mankind -- a fact that isn't lost on Cornelius and Zira's now-grown-up son Caesar (Roddy McDowall, who also played Cornelius in two of the first three Apes films), who's now a bareback rider in Senor Armando's circus, as both visit Central City, which is run by the corrupt Governor Breck (Don Murray). Both Caesar and Armando try to be cautious while in Central City, yet it can't hide how they feel when they see enslaved apes forced to perform menial duties -- as well as those who are punished severely for being disobedient, which prompts Caesar to shout out "Lousy human bastards!" Needless to say, it results in unwanted attention for both Caesar and Armando (who tells the lie that it was he who uttered that exclamation, not Caesar), who soon go into hiding -- both soon part, as Caesar takes refuge among a cage full of orangutans from Borneo who are designated for slavery via brutal conditioning (with Caesar eventually sold to Governor Breck), while Armando goes to the authorities to clear up any misunderstandings.

Things then go from bad to worse, when Armando, after being interrogated by the authorities, commits suicide before they can force him to reveal Caesar's existence -- which shocks and infuriates the simian, who loses all faith in human kindness, and soon secretly trains nearly all of Central City's ape population (mainly gorillas and chimpanzees) in the combat arts, as well as procure the weapons needed for the upcoming rebellion. But then, Caesar is captured by Breck's men, and is soon forced to reveal his identity via electrical torture before he is slated to be executed; however, Mr. MacDonald (Hari Rhodes), an African-American who's one of Breck's aides -- and who sympathizes with the apes' plight, since his ancestors were slaves -- reduces the electrical power of the death device that's supposed to execute Caesar, who not only survives his punishment, but also eliminates his would-be executioner. From there, Caesar leads the ape rebellion that results in the deaths of many Central City police officers and government officials, a prelude to similar rebellions by other apes throughout the world; screenwriter Paul Dehn based the film‘s climax on the violent race riots that occurred in Los Angeles‘ Watts section roughly seven years before.

The final scene of Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes was somewhat altered from what it was already intended to be -- in the original ending, Caesar and his fellow apes would kill Breck and the other remaining residents of Central City, despite MacDonald's unsuccessful attempt to convince Caesar to show mercy for the man who wanted him dead; that ending didn't fare well with preview audiences who first saw the film. As a result, 20th Century Fox re-edited the final scene using existing footage, in which Lisa (Natalie Trundy), Caesar's future wife, convinces him to reconsider his decision by uttering the word "N -N - N - No . . .." (Accomplished by dubbing a new voice-over) -- as Caesar tells his ape army to cease with the violence, and rule the human race in a humane fashion.

Like its previous sequels, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes has its share of continuity glitches (and whether or not Paul Dehn -- who wrote the first three sequels -- was actually aware of them when he wrote the scripts for them continues to arouse discussion today.). For one thing, as revealed in Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, Caesar was responsible for the ape rebellion -- whereas Escape From The Planet Of The Apes stated that Aldo was credited with starting it, according to the history scrolls that Cornelius mentioned; therefore, Caesar's presence might have altered the course of history, as suggested in the fourth Apes film -- since his parents Cornelius and Zira came from the far future. Furthermore, Aldo, who was supposed to utter "No" as the history scrolls recorded, said nothing in the fourth Apes film -- that honor would go to Lisa, the chimpanzee who would end up marrying Caesar.

The final film in the Planet Of The Apes series, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, released in mid-June 1973, and directed by J. Lee Thompson from the screenplay by the husband-and-wife writing team of John and Joyce Hooper Corrington (and based on Paul Dehn's story idea), has been considered by many to be the weakest of the four sequels, and the one with the lowest budget. The film is framed by a prologue and epilogue taking place in the 27th Century in which the Lawgiver (played by actor/director John Huston), whose statute appeared in the first two Apes films, narrates the story of how Caesar (now married to Lisa, the mother of their son Cornelius, named after Caesar‘s own father) -- now the leader of Ape City -- learns the truth about his parents via audiotapes, as well as Earth's fate in the far future, as he tries to bring about peace between both humans and ape in the early-21st Century, after the earth was ravaged by global nuclear war. However, Caesar's efforts are threatened by not only Kolp (Severn Darden, reprising his role from Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes), an official serving under Governor Breck, then succeeding him as leader of the former Central City (now renamed the Forbidden City) after his death, who orders an all-out war on Ape City after spotting the simian and several associates within the city limits -- but also Aldo (Claude Akins), the gorilla leader, who plots to overthrow Caesar and eliminate all humans in order to become leader of Ape City, which includes injuring Caesar's son in order to achieve that end; near the film's end, Aldo dies after a duel to the death between him and Caesar. By the film's epilogue, there seems to be peace between both humans and apes in the 27th Century -- though a tear running down the cheek of Caesar's statue might tell a different story, perhaps paving the way for a future sequel. However, 20th Century Fox decided to end the Planet Of The Apes film franchise after this sequel -- but then, it was best this way, since the franchise was start to run out of creative steam. The final Apes film would also be one of the last films to be produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, who died barely over a week after its release.

The end of the Planet Of The Apes film series didn't diminish its popularity, as evident by CBS broadcasting the five theatrical films on TV during the 1970's -- not to mention a paperback reissue of Pierre Boulle's original novel, plus best-selling paperback adaptations of the four Apes sequels that were published in the late-1960's and early-1970's. In 1970, Gold Key published a comic book adaptation of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes -- in the decades to come, a number of comic book publishers, including Marvel and Dark House, would publish their own Planet Of The Apes comic books. (Currently, independent comic book publisher Mr. Comics owns the license to publish Planet Of The Apes comic books.) The films would also become one of the major licensing successes of the past few decades, as the popularity and box office success of the Apes franchise helped spawned a wide array of merchandise items, from lunch boxes and action figures to beach towels and video games -- similar to other mass media properties, both past and present, which helped spawn successful merchandising empires

Inspired by how well airings of the Planet Of The Apes theatrical films earned respectable Nielsen ratings for CBS, the network commissioned 20th Century Fox to produce a hour-long TV series, which aired during the 1974-75 prime time season, with Apes film alumni Roddy McDowall taking on the role of the simian Galen, who helps two time-tossed NASA astronauts (Ron Harper, James Naughton) who end up back on Earth in the year 3085, escape the gorilla soldiers who've been ordered to kill them. Several things made the TV version different from the film series -- including the fact that the humans living on the 31st Century Earth depicted in the TV series can actually talk, and the presence of certain forms of technology left over from past centuries. Still, the TV version of Planet Of The Apes, which first aired in mid-September 1974, was canceled three months later, unable to take away viewers from NBC's highly rated Sanford & Son and Chico & The Man; the TV series ended before the ultimate fate of the two astronauts could be answered. (When several TV-movies compiled of episodes from the TV series first aired in syndication in 1981, including ABC-affiliate stations; it was the ABC-affiliate stations which aired new prologues and epilogues as part of their afternoon movie programs, with McDowall reprising his role as a now older Galen -- and who revealed that the human astronauts from the TV series did indeed leave 31st Century Earth in the spaceship that had brought them there; it would be the last time that McDowall would don the ape makeup that was largely associated with the franchise.)

The following year, NBC aired Return To The Planet Of The Apes, an animated TV series co-produced by Fox in tandem with David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng, as part of the network's Saturday morning schedule during the 1975-76 TV series. The animated TV series -- in which three astronauts, including a female, end up on the ape-dominated Earth of the future -- is best remembered for the fact that it remained true to Pierre Boulle's original concepts, especially the technologically advanced society (complete with TV, automobiles, etc.), just like the one depicted in the novel (and which 20th Century Fox and producer Arthur P. Jacobs couldn't recreate for the first two Apes films in 1968 and 1970, due to budget restrictions). Despite the services of comic book artist Doug Wildey (who designed the characters for Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest back in the 1960's), who served as the series' associate producer and supervising director, and the inclusion of characters from both the Apes feature films and live-action TV series, Return To The Planet Of The Apes would only last a single season on NBC before going off the air for good in early-September 1976, with the ultimate fate of its human heroes left up in the air; it would also be the last Planet Of The Apes project that Fox would produce for the next twenty-five years.

By the late-1990‘s and 2000‘s, the science fiction film as a whole had already advanced forward in terms of storytelling and technology, as evident by the success of such film properties as Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Terminator. Also, by that time, the term "Re-Imagining" would come into vogue, referring to past film franchises like Halloween that were both revived and revamped for modern audiences.

Starting in the late-1990's, 20th Century Fox, its prestige already benefiting strongly from distributing George Lucas's Star Wars films, as well as the box office success of Independence Day (1996), decided to revive the Planet Of The Apes franchise for a new generation of movie audiences. The original film series that entertained audiences in the late-1960's and 1970's was not only still popular (thanks in part to repeated showings on the TV, plus the films themselves being released on home video since the late-1970‘s, in both video cassette and DVD disc formats), but had also become part of both pop culture and film history -- a great example of the franchise's continuing influence on the entertainment industry was found in a 1996 episode of FOX's The Simpsons, featuring a scene in which Troy McClure (Phil Hartman) starred in a stage musical based on Planet Of The Apes.

Doing a 21st Century remake of Planet Of The Apes proved to be more difficult than producing the 1968 film version and its sequels. Directors Oliver Stone and James Cameron were attached to the project at various times -- and at one point, Cameron even wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to play the lead role in the film. In the end, the job of producing and directing the remake fell to, respectively, Richard Zanuck (who was Fox production chief when the 1968 film version was released) and Tim Burton, who was no stranger to popular film franchises, having directed the first two of Warner Bros.' Batman films in the late-1980's and early-1990's. But despite a distinguished cast headed by Mark Wahlberg (and featuring unbilled cameos by Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison, who appeared in the first two Apes films in 1968 and 1970), and the exceptional makeup work of Academy Award-winner Rick Baker (whose ape makeup that was applied on co-stars Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, etc. was more realistic than that of John Chambers' over thirty years before), Burton's remake of Planet Of The Apes, though a box office success, was panned by most film critics, who like many diehard fans, preferred the earlier Apes films over the 2001 version. It should be noted that the remake's ending, in which Wahlberg's character of astronaut Leo Davidson, after his time travel trip to the apes' planet in the early-31st Century, returns to Earth in the year 2029 to find it dominated by talking apes -- and inspired by the ending in Pierre Boulle's novel -- was supposed to serve as a springboard for a possible sequel that would never happen, due to the film's mostly negative reviews.

Subsequent and unsuccessful attempts to recapture the magic has, fortunately, not tarnished the popularity of the Planet Of The Apes franchise, especially the film trilogy from the late-1960's and 1970's that started it -- a franchise that remains one of the most successful (and more often than not, thought-provoking) in show business history.