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Paul Dehn was hired to write the "BENEATH" screenplay, and, according to his testimony, he was expected to END the the series right there. With the end of the world.
He was surprised that after the second Apes film, he was once again asked to provide another sequel.
Zoob…I believe you are over-thinking that line of dialogue…
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Posted: |
Feb 6, 2016 - 2:40 AM
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By: |
Mike_J
(Member)
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As others have said, a third movie wasn't planned until after Beneath did well at the box office and Paul Dehn says he got a telegram from Arthur P Jacobs that simply read:
"Apes live! Sequel required!"
And so he went off and wrote Secret of the Planet of the Apes (retired Escape after filming was completed).
I've always been mighty impressed that Dehn was able to come up with a third Apes screenplay, having destroyed the entire planet and the whole cast in the second movie. Doing a reverse of the first movie with Zira, Cornelius and Milo was absolutely inspired.
I still have a lot of time for Escape. Sure, it is cheesy in parts, contains a lot of stuff that is hugely contradictory (Cornelius recounting the revisionist history of the ape planet, including the plague of cats and dogs and the first ape to speak which were hitherto unknown to him in the first two films) and also stretches credibility (in the first film Cornelius is astonished by a paper plane, two movies later he and the others are flying a spaceship). But it has acres of charm, a terrific villain (Eric Braeden, so good in Colosssus: The Forbin project, another of my favourite SF movies) and a superb score.
Sadly the follow ups to Escape kind of dropped the ball. Conquest is ok but suffers from a very restricted budget and some poor editing to reduce the violence (although it is still far and away the most violent Apes film) but Battle is a huge let down, and looks like a cheap TV movie. Significantly, both of those movies were not written by Dehn although he did write a first draft for Conquest (and if you get a chance read up about that - a far better concept than the final version).
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I too have soft spot for Escape. It was the first Apes film I saw at the cinema, and the next one was Battle. Then, unlike in the US the tv series was a hit here in the UK, so they pressed out the Apes movies in double bills to cash in. Which was great as I got to see the rest of 'em. Actually I might not have seen Conquest being underage and I might be right in thinking it carried a more adult certificate.
What I do remember is that all the kids at school watched the tv series on Sunday evenings so it was a talking point the next day. The funniest thing, and it always pops into my head when I think of the franchise, was a guy wandering around Barnsley Market one Saturday afternoon selling glove puppets of Roddy McDowell's character from the tv series yelling "COME AND GET YER GALENS"!
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Posted: |
Feb 6, 2016 - 4:51 PM
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By: |
Mike_J
(Member)
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Actually Dehn wrote the screenplay for CONQUEST, there were no other writers involved. CONQUEST was meant to be the end of the series, but Fox was in very bad financial shape in those years and desperate for anything that would make a profit. This is why the budgets were so low for the final APES films, and although BATTLE was subpar in almost all respects, except for its score, it made money. Forty years later, the $150 Million budgeted DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was essentially a remake of BATTLE.
Ooops! Just checked one source: There was another screenwriter on CONQUEST, John T. Kelley, who did an uncredited script polish.
Rory, you're absolutely right - my memory is playing tricks on me. I was thinking of Battle, where Dehn wrote the first draft and was too ill to do any re-writes (although did come back to do a polish on the final shooting script).
Dehn's first draft was a far more interesting concept than the finished version and is worth looking at - you can read it here :
http://pota.goatley.com/scripts/pota_battle_1stdehn.pdf
Interestingly, at one stage the final film was called Epic of the Planet of the Apes (temporarily replacing the original and final title of Battle) What a lousy title! But then the final title is a bit silly - surely you have a conquest after a battle, not the other way round? In the same way you should have a dawn before a rise? Still, Col. Taylor did call it an "upside down planet".
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I too have soft spot for Escape. It was the first Apes film I saw at the cinema, and the next one was Battle. Then, unlike in the US the tv series was a hit here in the UK, so they pressed out the Apes movies in double bills to cash in. Which was great as I got to see the rest of 'em. Actually I might not have seen Conquest being underage and I might be right in thinking it carried a more adult certificate.
Paul, you're right about the certificate issues - Conquest and Beneath were both rated AA during the re-release double bills, whilst the other three movies were rated A certificate.
As a result the double bills were an odd mix - Planet partnered Escape and Beneath was paired with Conquest. I can't recall about Battle but I have a vague idea that it featured in a double bill with a non-apes movie. I do know what it took me forever to see it, so I suspect the re-release was a long time after the others.
Like you, Escape was the first Apes movie I saw - for some bonkers reason the Odeon St Albans showed that before Planet.
I remember seeing a double bill of Battle and Conquest at the Odeon, St Albans. Fathom will be presenting a screening of Planet of the Apes, which I'm looking forward to seeing .
http://www.fathomevents.com/event/planet-of-the-apes
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