Just in case you haven't had enough PLANET OF THE APES after reading this year's TALES OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE or the graphic novel TARZAN ON THE PLANET OF THE APES, comes this collection of essays that discuss the various incarnations of Apes through the years, from the original movies to the comics to the current films. Robert Greenberger kicks things off by talking about Pierre Boulle's original book, "Monkey Planet" and his involvement (or not) with the first two movies. Corinna Bechko, who has written numerous Apes comics, talks about the appeal of intelligent apes. I found Jim Johnson's speculation on what happened to society prior to CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES extremely interesting, as it's a very different world than presented in ESCAPE. Neil Moxham delves into how screenwriter Paul Dehn greatly inluenced the entire mythos with the original films and Joel Dilworth tries to make sense of the time travel presented the the films while Dayton Ward (who wrote an original story in TALES OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE) writes about the short-lived weekly series. I had forgotten that when these episodes were repackaged into movies years later that Roddy McDowell shot additional footage as Galen, stating that Virdon and Burke eventually did make it back to their own time period. There's also essays on the cartoon series, Tim Burton's re-imagining (which I personally think is a decent, self-contained film), as well as the tie-in novels and comics, some of which are better than the movies.
All in all this is an interested read and brings up some good points about the mythos. If you're an APES fan this is a must. Recommended.
Forward By David Gerrold
Edited By Rich Handley And Joseph F Berenato
AKA: Bright Eyes, Ape City: Examining The Planet Of The Apes Mythos
Just in case you haven't had enough PLANET OF THE APES after reading this year's TALES OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE or the graphic novel TARZAN ON THE PLANET OF THE APES, comes this collection of essays that discuss the various incarnations of Apes through the years, from the original movies to the comics to the current films. Robert Greenberger kicks things off by talking about Pierre Boulle's original book, "Monkey Planet" and his involvement (or not) with the first two movies. Corinna Bechko, who has written numerous Apes comics, talks about the appeal of intelligent apes. I found Jim Johnson's speculation on what happened to society prior to CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES extremely interesting, as it's a very different world than presented in ESCAPE. Neil Moxham delves into how screenwriter Paul Dehn greatly inluenced the entire mythos with the original films and Joel Dilworth tries to make sense of the time travel presented the the films while Dayton Ward (who wrote an original story in TALES OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE) writes about the short-lived weekly series. I had forgotten that when these episodes were repackaged into movies years later that Roddy McDowell shot additional footage as Galen, stating that Virdon and Burke eventually did make it back to their own time period. There's also essays on the cartoon series, Tim Burton's re-imagining (which I personally think is a decent, self-contained film), as well as the tie-in novels and comics, some of which are better than the movies.
