Behind the Planet of the Apes

(Roddy McDowall)|This is MaIibu Creek State Park,...

..Iocated near the city of Los AngeIes.

AII of this once beIonged...

..to one of HoIIywood's biggest and most|prestigious studios: Twentieth Century Fox.

Nicknamed ''The Fox Ranch'',...

..it was home to some of the most|memorabIe motion pictures ever made.

But in 1968, this Iocation was used|for a very different kind of fiIm.

Produced during one of the most|turbuIent periods in our nation's history,...

..it expIored reIigious,|sociaI and poIiticaI themes...

..and managed to be wiIdIy|entertaining at the same time.

World gone insane.

Upside-down civilisation.

Take your stinking paws off me,|you damn dirty ape!

The only good human is a dead human!

My God, it's a city of apes!

Now! Fight like apes!

lt's a madhouse!

Planet of the Apes spawned four sequeIs,|two teIevision series...

..and a mountain of merchandise.

It became a cuIturaI phenomenon.

And it started as the vision of two men.

A French noveIist named Pierre BouIIe...

..and a HoIIywood fiIm producer|named Arthur P Jacobs.

Born in 1922, Arthur Jacobs began his career|as a messenger at MGM in the 1940s.

Energetic, forcefuI and fuII of ideas,...

..he soon found himseIf working|in their pubIicity department.

A master of promotion, he was|eventuaIIy Iured away by Warner Bros.

But Arthur wanted controI of his own destiny.

In 1949, he Ieft Warners|to form his own pubIic reIations firm,...

..and within two years his cIient roster|incIuded such high-profiIe ceIebrities as...

..Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart,...

..Judy GarIand and MariIyn Monroe.

MariIyn heIped Jacobs make the transition|from pubIicist to producer in the earIy 1960s.

She agreed to star in a fiIm he was|deveIoping caIIed What a Way To Go.

But, before production couId begin,|MariIyn Monroe died on August 5th, 1962.

Arthur had Iost his star,|but not his determination.

(wolf whistle)

(trailer) Hi, folks! ln case|you didn't know it, that's a girl- all girl.

Yeah! Shirley MacLaine.

Jacobs got his movie made.

The fiIm became one of Fox's|top moneymakers of 1964.

Arthur's reputation as a skiIfuI,|creative producer was assured.

Just after the fiIm's reIease,|Fox studio head, Richard Zanuck,...

..showed his appreciation by agreeing|to finance another Jacobs project...

..caIIed Dr Dolittle.

Starring Rex Harrison,|the fiIm featured originaI songs,...

..dazzIing speciaI effects,|hundreds of extras...

..and a Iarge supporting cast|of trained animaIs.

The fiirst fiilm in which a human being -|myself- actually talks to animals.

It was during DoIittIe's Iengthy|preproduction phase...

..that Arthur approached Zanuck|with an idea for another motion picture.

It, too, pIayed with the concept|of taIking to the animaIs, but...

..in a much more serious way.

It was caIIed Planet of the Apes.

In 1963, Jacobs had acquired the rights|to a noveI entitIed La plante des singes,...

..or The Monkey Planet,...

..by one of France's|most accIaimed authors, Pierre BouIIe.

La plante des singes...

..toId the story of three astronauts|who traveI to an aIien worId...

..where man is a primitive beast,|dominated by a race of superinteIIigent apes.

Jacobs read the book shortIy before|its officiaI pubIication...

..and quickIy purchased the screen rights.

He feIt that the concept|wouId make for a visuaIIy intriguing,...

..highIy originaI motion picture.

But BouIIe disagreed.

He considered the noveI one of his Iesser|works, with no potentiaI for screen success.

During the next few months,|Jacobs commissioned sketches...

..depicting his concept|of the apes' strange, aIien worId.

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