Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #4

..Chambers worked around the cIock.

And extras were hired just to sit in|for numerous makeup tests.

Arthur Jacobs caIIed me one day and he said|''We're not gettin' anywhere.''

''We gotta get goin'.''|He said ''See if you can heIp those guys.''

I said ''Anybody ever thought of...

..actuaIIy Iooking at an ape?''

He said ''Yeah. If you think you can|get us an ape, we'd Iove to see it.''

So I went back to Arthur|and I said ''They need an ape.''

He said ''Get 'em one.''

The next day I waIk into makeup with|a chimpanzee, and these guys went crazy!

(Roddy McDowall) Next, design choices were|made to differentiate various types of apes.

Chimps, who were sympathetic|to man in the story,...

..were made to Iook|a IittIe more human in appearance.

The goriIIas represented the ape miIitary...

..and were given faces much fiercer|than their reaI-Iife counterparts.

And the aristocratic orang-outangs|were given a more nobIe visage.

What Chambers was creating for|Planet of the Apes was not onIy ingenious,...

..it was breaking new ground.

The actors actuaIIy were abIe to express|emotion through those makeups.

It's kinda tough.|And John Chambers made it work.

WhiIe John Chambers Iaboured|on the makeup design,...

..Arthur Jacobs turned his attention|to the script.

Rod SerIing's screenpIay had remained|faithfuI to the originaI noveI,...

..and depicted|a technoIogicaIIy advanced society.

But the production team began to fear|that the apes were too evoIved.

Futuristic heIicopters and cars|wouId be too expensive to fiIm.

The earIy designs were|very high-tech civiIisation,...

..which meant you had to design aII kinds|of speciaI vehicIes and so on. And buiIdings.

And Frank said|''I don't have enough budget as it is.''

He said ''Why don't we say|it's a very primitive society...

..and they use horse and wagons|and very primitive buiIdings?''

And that's what we did.

(Roddy McDowall) After deciding on a more|rustic and cost-efficient ape society,...

..Jacobs contacted|screenwriter MichaeI WiIson.

WiIson was an Academy Award winner|who had earIier coIIaborated...

..on the screen adaptation of Pierre BouIIe's|The Bridge on the River Kwai.

(Mort Abrahams) Mike WiIson did a rewrite|which was very cIose to being right.

We were aIready deaIing|with a science fiction... centraI idea.

And I had Iearned, because I'd done|a Iot of science fiction things on teIevision,...

..that you cannot present too many...|science fiction ideas,...

..and have them work,|unIess you had characters.

BeIievabIe human...|or characters with human responses.

And we couIdn't contain aII the science|fiction that Pierre had envisioned.

And we had to simpIify it.

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