3. Return to the Planet of the Apes: World at War
Long before
Rise of the Planet of the Apes revitalized this franchise, a number of questionable sequels had led us to believe it was dead. A decade prior to Tim Burtons misguided attempt to retell the story, an opportunity to reboot the franchise came and went. While it may be hard to accept in todays cinematic climate that a time existed in which reboots were deemed risky, such is the tale of
Return to the Planet of the Apes: World at War. Penned in 1988 by Adam Rifkin---known for the films
Underdog and
Small Soldiers---this alternate sequel to the 1968 original would have seen a descendant of Taylor and Nova (Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison respectively) as the protagonist in a sand and sandal story fighting as a gladiator in an Ape run arena. Developmentally, the Apes would have reached their developmental equivalent of the Roman Empire and become oppressive to their human counterparts forcing them to fight to the death for their entertainment. Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen were early contenders for the lead role and the project was put on the fast track to pre-production. Mere days before production was to begin, new studio executives took over at Fox leading to the oft-told creative differences that ultimately ended this project. I cant accurately describe in words the utter euphoria I felt, said Rifkin of the project, knowing that I, Adam Rifkin, was going to be resurrecting the Planet of the Apes. It all seemed too good to be true. I soon found out it was. The film may have been
Gladiator with Apes. It may have been just as bad as the previous sequels that killed the franchise---we will never know. One thing is certain, however; and that is that this film would have been far better than Tim Burtons ill-conceived 2001 re-imagining of the original classic,
Planet of the Apes. Fortunately, with
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Fox and the rest of the world seem to be content to pretend that never happened.