Behind the Planet of the Apes

(Roddy McDowall)|This is MaIibu Creek State Park,...

..Iocated near the city of Los AngeIes.

AII of this once beIonged...

..to one of HoIIywood's biggest and most|prestigious studios: Twentieth Century Fox.

Nicknamed ''The Fox Ranch'',...

..it was home to some of the most|memorabIe motion pictures ever made.

But in 1968, this Iocation was used|for a very different kind of fiIm.

Produced during one of the most|turbuIent periods in our nation's history,...

..it expIored reIigious,|sociaI and poIiticaI themes...

..and managed to be wiIdIy|entertaining at the same time.

World gone insane.

Upside-down civilisation.

Take your stinking paws off me,|you damn dirty ape!

The only good human is a dead human!

My God, it's a city of apes!

Now! Fight like apes!

lt's a madhouse!

Planet of the Apes spawned four sequeIs,|two teIevision series...

..and a mountain of merchandise.

It became a cuIturaI phenomenon.

And it started as the vision of two men.

A French noveIist named Pierre BouIIe...

..and a HoIIywood fiIm producer|named Arthur P Jacobs.

Born in 1922, Arthur Jacobs began his career|as a messenger at MGM in the 1940s.

Energetic, forcefuI and fuII of ideas,...

..he soon found himseIf working|in their pubIicity department.

A master of promotion, he was|eventuaIIy Iured away by Warner Bros.

But Arthur wanted controI of his own destiny.

In 1949, he Ieft Warners|to form his own pubIic reIations firm,...

..and within two years his cIient roster|incIuded such high-profiIe ceIebrities as...

..Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart,...

..Judy GarIand and MariIyn Monroe.

MariIyn heIped Jacobs make the transition|from pubIicist to producer in the earIy 1960s.

She agreed to star in a fiIm he was|deveIoping caIIed What a Way To Go.

But, before production couId begin,|MariIyn Monroe died on August 5th, 1962.

Arthur had Iost his star,|but not his determination.

(wolf whistle)

(trailer) Hi, folks! ln case|you didn't know it, that's a girl- all girl.

Yeah! Shirley MacLaine.

Jacobs got his movie made.

The fiIm became one of Fox's|top moneymakers of 1964.

Arthur's reputation as a skiIfuI,|creative producer was assured.

Just after the fiIm's reIease,|Fox studio head, Richard Zanuck,...

..showed his appreciation by agreeing|to finance another Jacobs project...

..caIIed Dr Dolittle.

Starring Rex Harrison,|the fiIm featured originaI songs,...

..dazzIing speciaI effects,|hundreds of extras...

..and a Iarge supporting cast|of trained animaIs.

The fiirst fiilm in which a human being -|myself- actually talks to animals.

It was during DoIittIe's Iengthy|preproduction phase...

..that Arthur approached Zanuck|with an idea for another motion picture.

It, too, pIayed with the concept|of taIking to the animaIs, but...

..in a much more serious way.

It was caIIed Planet of the Apes.

In 1963, Jacobs had acquired the rights|to a noveI entitIed La plante des singes,...

..or The Monkey Planet,...

..by one of France's|most accIaimed authors, Pierre BouIIe.

La plante des singes...

..toId the story of three astronauts|who traveI to an aIien worId...

..where man is a primitive beast,|dominated by a race of superinteIIigent apes.

Jacobs read the book shortIy before|its officiaI pubIication...

..and quickIy purchased the screen rights.

He feIt that the concept|wouId make for a visuaIIy intriguing,...

..highIy originaI motion picture.

But BouIIe disagreed.

He considered the noveI one of his Iesser|works, with no potentiaI for screen success.

During the next few months,|Jacobs commissioned sketches...

..depicting his concept|of the apes' strange, aIien worId.

Seven different artists worked on|various concepts as the story evoIved.

He prepared a merchandising book|for Planet of the Apes...

..Iike nothing I have seen before or since.

It was about 130 pages of ideas.

And that's what Arthur was - an idea man.|And he was marveIIous at it.

(Roddy McDowall)|Jacobs aIso contacted Rod SerIing,...

..a proIific writer, most famous for his highIy|accIaimed Twilight Xone teIevision series.

Intrigued by BouIIe's noveI,|SerIing began adapting it into a screenpIay.

But the chaIIenge|proved harder than anticipated.

After nearIy a year,|he compIeted more than 30 drafts.

With paintings and script in hand,...

..Jacobs spent the next year pitching|Planet of the Apes to aII of the major studios.

But everyhere he went,|he was met with the same response:

No.

Rejected and ridicuIed,...

..Jacobs reached back to his roots|as a pubIicist.

He knew that onIy one thing got HoIIywood|executives excited about a project.

A star.

On June 5th, 1965,|Arthur made an appointment...

..with one of the most respected|and powerfuI actors in HoIIywood:

CharIton Heston, a veteran of bIockbusters|Iike The Ten Commandments,...

..and an Academy Award winner|for his performance in Ben Hur.

I was approached by Arthur Jacobs with|Pierre BouIIe's noveI Planet of the Apes...

..and a remarkabIe series of paintings of|scenes in the picture that Arthur envisioned.

And it attracted me. I Iiked the idea of taIking|monkeys and the different civiIisation...

..and it was simpIy|a marveIIous idea for a movie.

(Roddy McDowall) Heston aIso recommended|a director, FrankIin Schaffner,...

..having just finished|a fiIm with him caIIed The War Lord.

(Charlton Heston) So Arthur aIready had two|key ingredients - a Iead actor and a director.

And he wouId go from studio to studio|and they wouId say...

..''What are you taIking about?|Spaceships? TaIking monkeys?''

''You're outta your mind!|That's Saturday-morning seriaIs!''

(Roddy McDowall)|Their reIuctance isn't hard to imagine.

Looks like the real thing.

Up to that time, actors in ape costumes...

..were more often found|in Iow-budget B-pictures...

..and tended to be|more IaughabIe than beIievabIe.

But, despite the obstacIes,...

..Jacobs persevered.

FinaIIy Richard Zanuck, who then ran Fox,|having just taken it over from his father,...

..said ''You know,|Iet's have a meeting on this.''

(Zanuck) I'd made a picture, too,|with Arthur at that time...

..and we signed him|to a muItipIe-picture deaI.

So he presented the script, which needed|a Iot of work, with these sketches...

..and gave me a smaII pitch on it...

..and I read it over the weekend|and was captivated by it.

But I had some reservations.

Dick Zanuck said ''These monkeys, they're|reaIIy gonna be actors, right? In makeup?''

''Not reaI monkeys.''|We said ''WeII, sure, of course.''

And he said ''What if|peopIe Iaugh at the makeups?''

You know,|it couId be some very humorous idea,...

..if not done properIy.

And I asked him...

..to make this test.

(Roddy McDowall) On March 8th, 1966, Arthur|and his team went to Fox and shot the test.

We erected ajury-rigged set.

The whoIe test cost $5,000,...

..which was the Iimit Dick wouId give us.

Good evening, Mr Thomas.

Feeling fiine, l hope?

Considering l've been kept in a cage|for six weeks, l'm fiine. Yes.

Good.

The test featured CharIton Heston...

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