Sci-Fi Storm

Fox has announced the casting of John Lithgow and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) in the upcoming Rise Of The Apes, a re imagined prequel to the Planet Of The Apes franchise. Also mentioned is the plot, with Pinto playing a scientist testing a possible Alzheimer’s cure on apes, fueled by her desire to help her Alzheimer’s suffering dad (Lithgow). The tests result in Caesar, who develops intelligence rapidly.

I thought I mentioned this before, but can’t find it…Fox is planning on a prequel to Planet Of The Apes, now called Rise Of The Apes, and has now given it a release date of June 24th, 2011. This has been simmering for a couple of years, and it seems to not be connected to the Tim Burton 2001 film, dealing with the chimpanzee named Caesar and his leading of a revolt against the humans. Perhaps this is more of a remake of the original films but more in chronological order, skipping or glossing over the time loop? This time around the apes will be CGI and not costumed actors, which could be good or bad (I think the costuming of the Burton film was decent).

For the 40th anniversary of the release of Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox re-released all the movies on Blu-Ray today, including the original with a slew of extras, and a box set of all five films. Here is a review of the Blu-Ray release of the original movie. See the Sci-Fi Movie Store for all the individual movies (and DVD releases as well).

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Rich Handley writes in to let us know about his new book being release for the 40th anniversary of the Planet Of The Apes film series, “Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology”. Read More for the full press release.

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Charlton Heston, who has uttered some of the most memorable lines in some of the greatest movies (and occasionally at press conferences), has passed away at the age of 84. In case anyone doesn’t know him, he starred in several biblical epic films (like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments), and of course Planet of the Apes. He also starred in The Omega Man, based on the same story that was recently done as I Am Legend.

I can’t believe I missed this. On November 20th, all 14 episodes of the 70s TV series Planet of the Apes was released on video. I remember this as a kid…especially the subway scene where Urko learns of the true history of the planet…and check out the review at Test Pattern. I’ve added a Miscellaneous section to the Sci-Fi TV Store for things like this.

According to Celebrity News at IMDb, producer Robert Zanuck has said that they are tossing around ideas for a sequel to Planet of the Apes, but they are in no hurry to push it out and into theaters. “We want to take our time and get it right,” he said. Also, according to him he has a deal with Mark Wahlberg, who starred in the first film, for two films, contrary to previous reports that no one had a sequel clause in their contract.