William Fischer is a features writer at Collider who focuses on 2D animation (particularly Disney), classic cinema, and the work of Tim Burton.
The Big Picture The trend of sequels and remakes taking over the movie theater is real, and the perception of them within the industry has shifted. Film series and their many entries are perceived as more valuable in and of themselves than the people who bring them to life. Actors are doubling and even tripling their franchise commitments, and it’s considered odd when a major actor or actress isn’t latched onto a big, splashy, never-ending enterprise.
Related This Planet of the Apes Film Flips the Script of the Original You maniacs! You blew it up! Intrigued by the acting challenge offered by the cynical protagonist of the Apes adaptation, Colonel George Taylor, Heston agreed to sign onto the project even before it had firm backing. More than that, Jacobs told Cinefantastique, it was Heston who brought director Franklin Schaffner to the film.
Heston said as much at the time. “There’s only the one story,” he remembered telling Zanuck. “You can have another picture about further adventures among the monkeys, and it can be an exciting film, but creatively there is no film.” But Fox, which had been in precarious financial shape for years, saw the box office records being broken by the first Apes and wanted another one, creative integrity be damned. And they couldn’t get a sequel off the ground without Charlton Heston.
Zanuck personally lobbied Heston to reconsider, and Heston was sympathetic to the studio’s position. “While as an actor there was no reason for me to do the part, it was certainly a wise move from the studio’s point of view,” he acknowledged. And he felt a certain loyalty to Zanuck, who was the only executive in Hollywood prepared to champion the first Apes. So he agreed to come back, on one condition: Taylor would be killed off in the first scene.
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