Hollywood producer Arthur P. Jacobs Giolitti and his studio of artists were scored the film rights for Boulle’s also responsible for Gold Key’s 1968 book. Without a script or even a treatadaptation of King Kong. For some, ment, the infectiously enthusiastic the Gold Key comic’s photo cover is Jacobs wooed Charlton Heston to the more exciting than the pedestrian project through a verbal pitch accominteriors (presumably, Giolitti’s panied only by several production studio also provided the script, drawings. Heston lured director adapting from the screenplay), but Franklin J. Schaffner to the in-develthis one-shot does indeed hold the opment film, but despite the superstar distinction of being POTA’s first actor’s involvement, trepidation foray into the comics world. existed within Tinseltown: Science fiction was not commercially A PLANET WHERE APES successful at the time (remember, this EVOLVED FROM MEN? was pre-Lucas Hollywood), concern The second artist to draw the series was voiced over the prohibitive cost was… no, not Larkin, Ploog, or of the movie, and there was an Tuska… but Jack Kirby. Okay, that outright fear that audiences would not that’s not entirely accurate, but take talking apes seriously. Kirby’s title Kamandi, the Last Boy To counter the latter concern, a on Earth was launched with a Nov. short test film co-starring Heston as a 1972 cover date, and Apes’ imprint trapped-in-a-world-he-never-made upon “the King’s” DC Comics human, astronaut Colonel Thomas creation is indisputable. (yes, Thomas), and legendary screen As related by Kirby’s one-time gangster Edward G. Robinson as Dr. protégé Mark Evanier in The Jack Zaius was prepped, currying the Kirby Collector #40 (Summer 2004), support of 20th Century Fox head in late 1971 (or thereabouts) Kirby Richard Zanuck. Zanuck procured the and then-publisher of DC, Carmine The first POTA comic book, Gold Key’s Beneath the Planet Infantino, were chatting by phone necessary funding ($5.8 million, of the Apes adaptation from 1970. considerably less than what Jacobs about the growing film and POTA © 2007 20th Century Fox. might’ve hoped for), and the producer merchandising success of Planet of grabbed The Twilight Zone’s twistthe Apes; since Gold Key’s adaptaending master Rod Serling to pen the screenplay (Boulle himself tion of the second film, the franchise had expanded with Escape also lobbied for that assignment). Ultimately Heston’s Colonel from the Planet of the Apes (1971), and 1972’s Conquest of the Thomas became Colonel Taylor, Maurice Evans was recast as Planet of the Apes was on its way. Infantino had inquired about Zaius due to Robinson’s adverse reaction to ape makeup, and DC obtaining the rights to a POTA comic but was unsuccessful Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter were signed to portray in his pursuit (probably due to the expense of the license), so the popular primates Cornelius and Zira. Screenwriter Michael Wilson reworked the story into its final shooting script, although Serling is responsible for its signature moment, Taylor’s discovery that this planet of apes is in fact Earth of the future. Shot between May and August of 1967, Planet of the Apes—producer Jacobson’s follow-up release to his 1967 kiddie movie Dr. Dolittle, which, coincidentally, starred a man who talked to the animals—opened on February 8, 1968. It eventually earned a jaw-dropping (for the day) box office of $32.6 million. HUMAN SEE, HUMAN DO As Jacobs had to toil to convince Zanuck to make his movie version of Apes, comic-book houses similarly required persuasion to adapt the movie to funnybooks. Gold Key Comics, responsible for the lion’s share of movie and TV adaptations of the late 1960s, skipped the first movie. Once the buoyant box office of POTA inspired 20th Century Fox to hurry a sequel into production, Gold Key jumped on board. Beneath the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franciscus as human flyboy Brent (accompanied by a reluctant Heston reprising, in a limited capacity, his Taylor role), hit theaters in June 1970, with a Gold Key adaptation produced by (in answer to the POTA IQ question) the Alberto Giolitti studio. As noted in Chapter 2,
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pair agreed that a new concept that borrowed (but not too closely) from the Apes mythology might be a worthwhile project for Kirby. Before long, Kirby dusted off his unrealized Kamandi of