After bleeding the original concept of the PLANET OF THE APES saga dry with four very different sequels AND then conjuring up one of the most pathetically pointless remakes of all time with Tim Burton’s reimagining in 2001, 20th Century Fox are contemplating another crack at the APES franchise which turned 40 years old this year.

Fox’s Chief Runner Tim Rothman is introducing a weekend of APE movies on the Fox Movie Channel and couldn’t help but announce excitingly that they were very close on greenlighting a new APES script…

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.

Now where this gets intriguing is that recently CHUD reported that a new script had recently been rejected at Fox which was to essentially remake CONQUEST OF THE APES, the fourth movie in the original 70’s saga which ended with the apes taking over the world from humans and setting in motion the chain of events that led up to the first movie.

The script was titled GENESIS: APES and was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, whose last credit was the instantly forgettable 1997 horror THE RELIC. The movie would be set in the modern day and would follow Caesar, the son of two Apes who escaped from the a far distant Earth before Charlton Heston blew it up in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES.

You still with me? CHUD originally gave this synopsis…

In this version Caesar is the result of a genetic scientist fooling around with the nature of things. When the baby monkey exhibits intelligence and the ability to talk, he takes the cuddly thing home to his wife, who is unable to bear children. Things go surprisingly well for a number of years until Caesar grows up and sees mommy getting attacked. The dutiful son steps in and accidentally kills the attacker.

Here’s where it takes off. In a scene paralleling Charlton Heston in the cage in the original Planet of the Apes, Caesar ends up in custody at an Ape Conservatory where he and the other apes are abused mercilessly. Caesar finds himself a primate without a world – he’s as smart as humans but will never be one of them (and is in fact tortured by them) and he’s initially rejected by his monkey brethren.

You’re on Caesar’s side, understanding where this poor outcast is coming from. But then the script gets really ballsy and, just like in Conquest, Caesar begins a campaign to unite the apes and overthrow human society. And his plan isn’t a Martin Luther King Jr series of marches, speeches and sit ins – Caesar and his apes take to the streets violently.

I myself have just been devouring the PLANET OF THE APES: 40th ANNIVERSARY BLU-RAY box set which I was kindly given to review and I have to say, I do miss this franchise. All the sequels, if not perfect films like the original, they did carry some interesting ideas.

This new movie sounds like it has something on it’s mind and a concept that could work if it’s placed in the right hands. I like that it’s about moving forward and not going back to the well that dried up years ago and left really great directors like Tim Burton completely confused on how to do something different.

Moving forward is the key to any success that might be left in this property.