Matt Reeves interview on The Planet of the Apes

I am sure everyone but myself has seen War for the Planet of the Apes this past weekend?

I did not, but looking forward to it. I still think the original 5 Apes movies are the best but these are good, and have some easter eggs for long term fans. I listened to KCRA's podcast The Business which has an interview with director Matt Reeves. The process involved in making these films is fascinating; they actually cut the movie together with all the dudes in their wetsuits (before the CG magic happens) and then send that off to Weta for the effects shots. On Dawn he had to make the movie within 2 years with a ticking clock; on War he had a full 3 years and reviewed every Apes film to figure out how to make this one. Reeves also discusses the forthcoming Batman film he is making starring Ben Affleck.

I was accidentally spoiled on the ending for War, not by Twitter, not by Facebook, but by the New York Times! The article is Andy Serkis on the Ending of 'War for the Planet of the Apes' and I did avoid it. However when flipping around to the end of the arts section, they had a question in bold type which my eyes could not avoid!

Terrible! All I can hope is that Ed Sheeran is not in a cameo in this film the way he was on Game of Thrones the other night! Nuff Said.

Sacred Scrolls: Comics on the Planet of the Apes

I received an email a few weeks ago announcing Sequart has published a new book called The Sacred Scrolls: Comics on the Planet of the Apes. Being a big Apes fan, I had to check it out, and was given a review copy in return for an honest review. It's a great addition to any bookshelf for a die-hard Apes fanatic.

Of particular interest to me, of course, were the chapters on Marvel Comics Planet of the Apes magazine from the 1970s. I have written a few articles on this topic myself, over on Giant-Size Marvel. I loved Doug Moench and Mike Ploog's Terror on the Planet of the Apes series in particular, in Sacred Scrolls there is a great chapter written by Sam Agro which recaps this series and offers some insights from Moench. Agro appreciates all the same things about Ploog's artwork in the early issues with an incredible ink wash style, then the later issues published from his full pencils. Zaki Hanson has a great overview of Marvel's adaptions of each the Apes movies and I had forgotten that for some of the sequels, Moench had included scenes taken out of the movies. John Roche covers Moench's Future History Chronicles series that was drawn by Tom Sutton, which was just mind blowing at the time. Both Roche and Agro reveal what would have happened if Marvel's POTA magazine had not been cancelled (and apparently that cancellation wasn't because of sales but licensing): more twists for the Terror series and a replacement strip for the film adaptations, Journey to the Planet of the Apes. Funny enough, I had discovered this myself back in 2009 and forgot, but take a look at my original article on GSM with links to this material.

It's a great trip down memory lane for the Marvel material, then Rich Handley and other authors cover how the Apes were handled at Malibu, Dark Horse, BOOM!, etc. I am not such an Ape fanatic to stick with it through all these iterations, but I found the BOOM! chapter to be the most interesting. I love Gabriel Hardman's work and his work (along with his wife Corina) on the Apes and reading that chapter was cool. One thing I discovered which blew me away - the variant covers on the Prime Directive mini-series, Gold Key homage covers feature both the classic Apes and Star Trek! The one above was for issue #4 featuring good old Chuck Heston.

The fifth issue has a cover featuring Spock, Dr Zira, etc. I remember Gold Key comics fondly, I hardly ever bought the regular comics but often did buy the digest sized books like The Twilight Zone. Gold Key published many Star Trek comics and I had assumed they were the first ones to publish POTA. The Sacred Scrolls has the details on that - in short they did the first Apes comic ever, but it was just an adaption of Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Any chance to dip back into Apes nostalgia is a good time, and Sacred Scrolls has lots of trivia to keep Apes fans happy for a few hours. Nuff Said!

Cracked on the Planet of the Apes!

Back in the 1970s, everyone went ape! This Cracked cover by John Severin looks like it was done around the time of Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

Nuff Said!

Planet of the Apes: New posters by Martin Ansin and others

Back in 2010, I reveled in artist Martin Ansin's trippy portrayal of The Flash.  This week, SlashFilm brought to my attention this poster to make any film fan go Ape!

Ansin's poster for the very first 1968 Planet of the Apes film was done for a marathon at the Alama Drafthouse.  Now this will be going on sale today as part of a set of posters, then later it will be sold individually.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes by Phantom City Creative.  I love this film the most out of the entire series, even though I think the first one was the best written and directed.  The poster captures all the key elements: Caesar, Lisa, the Gorilla rebels, and the climactic scene at the end with Breck.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Rich Kelly.  This artist chose the perfect scene to illustrate, the moment the Apes remove their helmets and reveal to the world that they are not human!

The prints will be sold as a set on Thursday, January 26th for $230. Any remaining individual prints will go on sale on Friday, January 27th.  Follow @MondoNews for on sale announcements.  Nuff Said!

Planet of the Apes Original Movie Posters

Hola, the Dude here, with some far out scans of the original Planet of the Apes movie posters.  I discovered this cool site called IMP Awards with tons of movie posters.  I've stolen some to share with you here. Please keep it between us, I have enough legal problems as it is.


I was way late to the Apes party, caught the first 3 films after they premiered on CBS in the 70s.  I remember seeing the first Apes film advertised all of the place in Los Angeles when it came out.  I am sure there were many variations on the poster released all over the freakin' world.  Did the original Apes poster really did show the full on makeup?  I think this version shows you just enough to wonder, with Dr. Zaius in the spotlight.  Looking at this poster with a fresh pair of eyes, the frightening part of this is the cage for the humans; where exactly did they go to the bathroom?

You can tell from this poster that the third movie, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, has loads of comedy.  Cornelius, Zira, and the baby who will become Caesar are framed in an old American western style photograph.  Below the logo, the Apes look bewildered in those spacesuits as they enter the strange world of humankind.
I heard someone once say that fiction should never try to combine comedy with tragedy.  A story had to be one tone all the way from beginning to end.  Whoever said that didn't watch a lot of 70s films.  Escape is a perfect example:  lots of laughs through the second act as Cornelius' family become celebrities and go on TV talk shows, but after the government figures out that Apes ruled the future Earth, there is one hell of a downer ending.  My advice to you: do not take Quaaludes while watching this flick!

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite films and the revolutionary story makes for a great poster.  The logo explodes three dimensionally at an angle, just enough to blow your mind, even if you aren't stoned.  The apes revolting and the police gettin' ready to force them away sends me back to Berkeley.  Even though I was never accepted to Berkeley and didn't go to college in the 70s!  It's that powerful!
Did you know Fox is getting ready to re-make Conquest?  It's going to be called Rise of the Apes.  I am highly skeptical, IMHO you cannot possibly improve on this classic.  Ricardo Montalban and Roddy McDowell are irreplacable. The ending of this film is a bit of a downer as well, with Caesar's speech providing the vision that the entire world (beyond Century City) is going to be overrun by Apes!  Will the remake show us scenes of Paris, Moscow, Beijing all conquered by Apes?  Now that stirs the imagination.   What would Apes look like speaking in French or Mandarin?  A Russian Ape, that would be quite funny.

Beneath and Battle are two of the worst posters.  Beneath should have featured Linda Harrison as Nova front and center. I would have also made a Nova spinoff, a Nova TV show, and Nova door-size posters. BTW, there is a neat little interview with Linda Harrison over at the Forbidden Zone.  I think Battle was the least profitable Apes movie because of this godawful painting.  Why highlight General Aldo (who doesn't look all the frightening) instead of Caesar, the Ape who just conquered an entire friggin' planet?  Big mistake, Arthur P. Jacobs!  Your bank account was in for a world of hurt!