Last month I brought you word that Fox had a new Planet of the Apes script floating around. Called Genesis: Apes, it’s essentially a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the original Apes cycle, which ends with the apes taking over the world from humans. Click here to read all about it.
Well, I don’t want to take credit for any possible movement on this sucker, but when I wrote that piece, Genesis: Apes was essentially dead. Now Tom Rothman, the chief ruiner at Fox, s chatting this movie up on Fox Movie Channel.
Fox Movie Channel is showing all five original Apes films on repeat this weekend (if nothing else, this bit of news makes this whole article worthwhile. Go watch so that you’re up to date on all spoilers when my Apes retrospective runs!), and Rothman is apparently talking about the movies in between them – at least this is what’s being reported. I don’t get FMC.
ANYWAY. After the original Planet of the Apes, Rothman had this to say (transcribed by loyal board reader Phil, the guy who turned me on to the Planet of the Apes garbage can that now sits next to my desk):
We are very close at Fox on a new Apes script- this one a kind of prequel story before the first story, with a return to the social thematics that mark the first one, but with an entirely contemporary setting – Earth 2009.
This is pretty exciting to me.This doesn’t mean that Fox is fast tracking Genesis: Apes or that the film has been greenlit, but with recent sales of the 40th anniversary Planet of the Apes Blu-Ray set going strong, this could point to hope for inveterate Apes fans like me and Phil.