Fox Moves ‘Apes’ Prequel To August 5

COMMENTS (31)

• This is going to be a career killer for Franco.

  Comment by Filmstradamus — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:22pm EDT  Reply to this post

  • James deserves a career killer after his unprofessional and disrespectful behavior at the Oscars- truly unforgivable & unforgettable . He didn’t care about his co-host Anne Hathaway nor did he care about the audience ( he was only concerned about taking Oscar pictures and posting them on his twitter account, while his co-host was doing his job ) . Basically , Franco pissed on and sh**ted on the whole ceremony and the audience. His arrogance still baffles me. Hilariously, Franco truly believes his own hype , and he believes he is a Renaissance Man- even though , his novel is atrocious and his writing / directing is mediocre at best. I want James to go away for a year or more – and just regroup.

    Comment by jt — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 11:04pm EDT  Reply to this post

  • He *had* a career?

    Comment by D.Z. — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 2:30am EDT  Reply to this post

• That’s good news as I’m eager to see this latest attempt to reboot a potentially VERY lucrative franchise, also Thanksgiving seemed like an odd fit for this material. As a HUGE fan of the original film in particular and it’s sequels I’ve long thought Fox was sitting on a potential goldmine to reinvigorate, but the Tim Burton fumble was such an unwatchable and incomprehensible mess! I’ve long held that the perfect new reboot would be similar to what J.J. Abrams did with “Star Trek”, a reboot that acknowledges what’s come before, but uses the conceit of time travel to start fresh while still remaining a sequel of sorts the original films. While that is sadly not what is being done with “Rise of the Apes”, I remain hopeful as what I’ve heard so far sounds to have much more potential than the previous “re imagining” we were subjected to in 2001. Boo however to CGI apes!!!

  Comment by Brian — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:23pm EDT  Reply to this post

• The spice must flow.

  Comment by Seriously, it must — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:25pm EDT  Reply to this post

• Moving it out of a prime holiday slot for late summer is not a good sign — at all.

  Comment by Doc Michaels — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:31pm EDT  Reply to this post

  • Huh?

    First week of August is a box office diamond for the studios. Just last year, OTHER GUYS opened with 35 mil. 2009: GI JOE with 54 mil.

    I bet you’re one of those guys who still thinks January is a dumping ground too.

    Comment by Ryan S — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 10:32pm EDT  Reply to this post

    • Just because a few movies have generated success opening in the first week of August doesn’t off-set that the month is still MOSTLY a dumping ground, just like January.

      And you think this movie — which hasn’t had one ounce of promotion whatsoever — is going to do the kind of business that GI JOE (which was hugely promoted) and OTHER GUYS (ditto, plus it had Ferrell starring in it) did?

      I don’t think there’s even been a teaser for this movie yet, and look around — there’s no buzz about it even on the geeky fanboy sites. Yes, I consider myself a geeky fanboy too — nobody cares about this film, and between Franco’s sinking rep and the stigma of Burton’s film (rightly or wrongly; I happen to like it), I think it’s going to crash and burn.

      Comment by Doc Michaels — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 11:36am EDT  Reply to this post

• Franco is just as lame as Wahlberg, this will suck and that is a shame

  Comment by stix — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:34pm EDT  Reply to this post

• This is a good idea. “The Muppets” is going to dominate the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

  Comment by Stephen — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 9:46pm EDT  Reply to this post

• A well-known franchise’s prequel getting no love from its own studio means they played the reality vs. expectations game and the reality is that the movie doesn’t deliver on their expectations. Uh oh for Franco.

  Comment by franco who? — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 10:11pm EDT  Reply to this post

• Fox is only moving this to the summer because their trying to make it into a tent-pole movie even though theirs hardly any action in this film. This film would have benefited from the Holiday instead of the Summer.

  Comment by Farzan — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 10:36pm EDT  Reply to this post

• another winner for fox. maybe bruce villanch can come in for some rewrites.

  Comment by chicken dinner — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 11:01pm EDT  Reply to this post

  • LOL!

    Comment by Carl — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 11:08am EDT  Reply to this post

• Rise of the Apes? Is this a film about the Tea Party?

  Comment by Faux News — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 11:24pm EDT  Reply to this post

• Tim Burton’s Apes was terrible. They had a great script that Jim Cameron wanted to make with Schwarzenegger in the Charlton Heston part. That would have been fantastic but I think they decided to make True Lies instead. As for this movie they also had a great script titled Caesar by Scott Frank but for some stupid reason they decided to throw it out or they wanted to rewrite it so much that they chased Scott Frank away from the project.

  Comment by Cornelius — Tuesday March 22, 2011 @ 11:27pm EDT  Reply to this post

• I’m no longer interested in paying to see diletante brat Franco in anything, especially not a big budget franchise reboot, which, I’m sure he took on as some sort of meta, performance art piece choice. Fuck that little squinty, squirmy, twitchy pussy boy. Too smart for his own good, but not smarter than me.

  Comment by Bob — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 1:27am EDT  Reply to this post

• Game over. Fox is getting big bomb out of the way before big Fall changes at company, is my guess.

  Comment by michel jevons — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 1:46am EDT  Reply to this post

• I enjoyed Burton’s Planet of the Apes. God forbid someone take the original idea for a film and run in a creatively different direction. Everyone in these forums always seem to want a remake. If you want to see the old film, watch the old film. I’ve talked to a lot of people and most actually liked the film as well. It seems to me that forums are populated by negativity.

  Comment by JJ — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 2:33am EDT  Reply to this post

  • I don’t know, i actually would like to see a prequel to apes, why not.

    Comment by MananaFilms — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 6:02am EDT  Reply to this post

  • …Including yours, it seems.

    Comment by casting couch — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 6:45am EDT  Reply to this post

  • I’m glad you liked Burton’s “Re Imagining” of “Planet of the Apes” in 2001 J.J., I find it’s always far more enjoyable to like a movie than not to. It seems a bit ridiculous however for you to label everyone who did not like it as just being filled with “Negativity”. The only “Re Imagining” Burton and the writers did was to “Re Imagine” what “Planet of the Apes” would be like if it had an atrocious script and was horribly miscast. The fact is the movie was completely reviled by the majority of folks who saw it. It was so universally hated by so many in fact that the studio did not go forward with any sequels knowing of the audiences overwhelming disappointment in it, in spite of the film having done well enough at the box office to warrant sequels, and that info comes straight from the executive producer’s mouth to my ears. I also had an amusing conversation with one of the main male stars of the film at a function shortly after “Apes” opened in which he shook his head in despair and asked “wasn’t it just fucking horrible??” And who exactly is it that you say is asking for a remake? Not I or anyone i know, I think most fans of “POTA” want a great new film that is actually some kind of many years later sequel like “Tron Legacy” or “Star Trek” did. It is NOT being negative to dislike a really shitty new version of a terrific, smart, classic film.

    Comment by Richard — Thursday March 24, 2011 @ 11:37pm EDT  Reply to this post

• I don’t see how they can screw this up Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Tom Felton & Brian Cox.

  Comment by deedeedragons — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 4:21am EDT  Reply to this post

• More proof that Fox is in serious trouble. Their embarrassing failures in the domestic market will continue until they rid themselves of frighteningly over-rated execs like Sella. Have you seen the X-Men posters that look like they were made by interns learning Photoshop? WTF?!

  Comment by harry — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 5:08am EDT  Reply to this post

• Yup, the late summer slot signals Fox have no confidence in it. They’ve done the math and are praying it will be a “sleeper” hit. It will be…like X Files: I Want To Believe was haha.

  Comment by Anonymous — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 8:23am EDT  Reply to this post

• I smell a turd – of EPIC proportions incoming..

  Comment by It's_A_Fact — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 8:53am EDT  Reply to this post

• Someone is about to fall on their sword.

  Comment by Curtis Scoon — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 10:17am EDT  Reply to this post

• These are smart moves if what everyone is saying is true. Aviv is starting to make his moves. Let’s hope he continues to make those moves to bring Fox out of crapper.

  Comment by Outside Looking Inside — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 11:18am EDT  Reply to this post

• You angry and bitter morons get me through my day, honest to god. Please don’t ever stop being so jaded.

  Comment by Laughing — Wednesday March 23, 2011 @ 12:26pm EDT  Reply to this post

• Yeah, August is the place where stinkers go to die. Kind of like the comment about the tea party.

  Comment by writestuffla — Thursday March 24, 2011 @ 1:35pm EDT  Reply to this post

• I’m so glad Rise of the Planet of the Apes beat the odds and became a critical and box office hit

  Comment by forg — Tuesday August 16, 2011 @ 1:37am EDT  Reply to this post