When I was in second grade, a friend's mother took a bunch of us kids to see CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES in the theatre for his birthday. By fourth grade--after having seen BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES in the theatre, and then PLANET, BENEATH and ESCAPE on TV-- I was an ape. I even enjoyed the short lived TV series and the cartoon, RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES (and the novelizations of the cartoon were excellent). I pretty much liked everything APES until Tim Burton got his stinking paws on the franchise, and I didn't even hate that sorry excuse for a film (which brought the world that much dreaded and overused term, "re-imagining").

So I was pretty excited when CHUD broke the news that 20th Century Fox had developed another APES film, not a sequel to Burton's misfire, but a remake of CONQUEST called GENESIS: APES. Because of its violence, CONQUEST was the only film in the original series to receive a PG rating, and because studio execs feared its revolutionary spirit would incite African American filmgoers to riot (int he wake of the Watts riots), the film was toned down, especially its incendiary climax. A "Director's Cut" of the film is now available in the new Blu-Ray set, and just aired on the Fox Movie Channel. If anyone has a copy, see me after class! And while I'm pining for bootlegs, I'd also like to get my mitts on a copy of the new script...

GENESIS: APES will re-tell the story of Caesar leading ape slaves in a revolt against human oppressors, only this time Caesar will be a genetically enhanced chimpanzee, not the child of two apes from the future. It sounds like a smart way to go to me. The project was apparently relegated to Development Hell, but in the wake of successful sales of the Blu-Ray edition, a Fox suit announced on this weekend's marathon that the project is close to getting a greenlight. This is one remake I can get behind.