From fantasy to horror, the many works of Peter Jackson have made him one of the defining faces in the last 30 years of genre movies, so it's a shame that we never got his take on Planet of the Apes! It was the '90s, and after having made a few gonzo horror movies and a pitch-black puppet comedy, Jackson had a couple of close calls with taking on the iconic franchise, but unfortunately was never officially given the chance. Yeah, Jackson would go on to take a few trips to Middle Earth and even remake one of his favorite movies, but these Apes "what-ifs" make for a few of the most interesting missed opportunities in the last few decades of big-budget blockbuster entertainment.
Peter Jackson grew up a mega fan of genre films like King Kong and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, spending his childhood making movies on 8mm film and animating his own little crafted monsters made out of foam latex. His love for heightened sci-fi developed into his first film, the alien invasion horror action film Bad Taste. This debut is a hilarious and wild peek at Jackson's abilities as a craftsman and develops even further in his sophomore effort Meet the Feebles. Here, there was less of an emphasis on action and thrills and more of an effort to focus on the story. Try to imagine less of a conventional story and more of a shocking and disgusting puppet parody of drama-in-show-business kinds of movies. You most definitely will laugh and are even more likely to feel guilty for doing so. Jackson's third effort, Braindead (also known as Dead Alive, depending on where you live), would be a return to form. In a lot of ways, Feebles might be a more overt comedy, but Braindead has lived on as Jackson's funniest movie... as well as one of the goriest movies of all time. It was 1992, his third movie was in the can, and it was time to look for the next project.
What Is the History Behind the 'Planet of the Apes' Movies?
By the early '90s, the Planet of the Apes franchise had been dormant for some time. From 1968 to 1973, five films in the franchise had been released, with one film being released a year (barring 1969). These movies were huge, but none would match the success of the original, one of the most important sci-fi films of its era. The series declined in quality, one entry after the next. By the time Battle for the Planet of the Apes was panned upon release, the series was already on its way to television. The Planet of the Apes TV show ran for one season in 1974, then would be followed up with the animated series Return to the Planet of the Apes, but even that was short-lived, running from '75 to '76. The series was officially dead and in dire need of a revival.
The Apes franchise would then enter an era of "development hell". New films would come close to kicking off and dying left and right, even with the likes of Oliver Stone coming close to tackling the series. The 80s were a tough time for our ape friends, but the 90s would see one figure rise to the challenge and almost save the chimp planet once and for all - Peter Jackson.
Peter Jackson's Close Calls With 'Planet of the Apes'
Peter Jackson's long road to making a Planet of the Apes movie originally began after his agent introduced him to the idea and suggested that he pitch his own sequel. He would go on to work on his take with his screenwriting partner Fran Walsh, and eventually pitch it to producer Harry J. Ufland. The film would have been a direct continuation of the original series, feature franchise-veteran Roddy McDowall, and depict a sort of ape Renaissance era. McDowell would have played a DaVinci-esque ape and there even would have been an ape-human hybrid featured. There was even the intention to throw in some political themes to keep it in line with the original, with the film's world experiencing an artistic boom that would have caused unrest in the ape government. Needless to say, Jackson's film was really going to get out there, while also acting as a return to form for the franchise.
Sadly, Fox's chairman at the time, Joe Roth, stepped down from his position and left Jackson without an ally. Fox's head of production, Tom Jacobson, was not a fan of Jackson and Walsh's ideas and had little attachment to the franchise anyway, so the film ended up becoming dead in the water... for now.
Instead, he would go on to direct the 1994 hit film Heavenly Creatures, one that made him an attractive figure for studios, including Fox. This led the filmmaking juggernaut to court Jackson back and revive his abandoned script. Thankfully for Jackson, things got moving along quickly this time around. This second go at the film would have seen Arnold Schwarzenegger starring and James Cameron producing, but ultimately, Jackson ended up walking away from the project. This is probably due to a worry that the film would have been overrun by its star and producer, two figures who already had a long history of collaborating up until that point. Their relationship likely would have resulted in Jackson losing creative control, a problem that he wouldn't really have to deal with until much later.
Peter Jackson's Career Would Be Just Fine
Although Peter Jackson never ended up making his Planet of the Apes Renaissance movie, his career did eventually jump into high gear with some pretty massive projects. Just a few years later, he would begin development on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a series that would go on to be hailed as one of the most ambitious and successful films ever made. They would rake in both box office dollars and accolades, so by the mid-2000s, Jackson was a bigger director than ever. He even had his hand at an ape-centric film with his eventual King Kong remake! The late 2000s and early 2010s would find the Braindead director slowly phasing out of narrative storytelling in favor of documentary filmmaking. The Hobbit trilogy would be followed up with both They Shall Not Grow Old and his epic eight-hour Beatles opus, Get Back. Jackson is still yet to return to fictional narrative filmmaking, but when he finally does, I think anyone and everyone would be excited if he took on Apes.
Peter Jackson's career would always have been just fine without his Planet of the Apes film, but it does make you wonder what they would have been like. Instead, we ended up getting Tim Burton's 2001 remake... yikes. As for Jackson, the iconic filmmaker was able to introduce audiences to Middle Earth, take a deadly trip to Skull Island, and even sit in the studio with The Beatles. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set to hit theaters in late May of next year. That film is set to follow up Andy Serkis' series of Apes films, a pretty promising, exciting prospect in and of itself. That being said, is there any more exciting proposition for continuing the franchise than using Jackson's Renaissance idea and the ape world taking on a more advanced civilization? If only the higher-up management at Fox didn't change in the mid-90s, we might have had the definitive entry in the Planet of the Apes franchise.