Rod Serling Presents

JOURNEY TO THE
PLANET OF THE APES
A Twilight Zone Movie

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The original Planet of the Apes movie enjoyed maybe the greatest twist ending in cinema history. Sorry M.Night! And it's no surprise to learn that the creator and spooky narrator of The Twilight Zone Rod Serling was the genius behind it. In many ways, Planet of the Apes was the greatest Twilight Zone episode never made because so much of its vibe and style was basically a big-budget offering of that wacky but haunting show. And the plans for the original had to be pared down, from a much grander more esoteric interpretation of the story. And that was a good thing. What we got is so iconic cornball sci-fi that it left its mark on cinema. But no one is going to confuse that film with a bonefide classic like 2001 or even Star Wars. I think the problem is simply how that movie was framed. And that it became serialized into episodes certainly didn't help. The sequel "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" was an odd epilogue with a design insisted upon a disillusioned right-wing actor Charleston Heston, who wanted to blow up the 60s if he could! Damn dirty apes is kinda how he felt about black people if we are going to be real for a second. Yet, there were moments in the movies that followed. And opportunity here for a great fan edit.

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There are many fan edits that attempt to reframe these movies as a Twilight episode. That isn't new. But I wanted to do with take the best of moments from the some of the other movies, including a distilled version of "Beneath" which features a great downer of an ending, and push the envelope of what could be done here. So, this movie, like some of other fan-edits, comes from an alternate reality of sorts. A 'What-if' place, as it were! I decided that, "What if" Planet was the first the first TRUE Twilight zone movies, as part of a series of films. That would make the second film that comes only about 10 years later a sequel of sorts. And to accomplish this, there is a nice reframing, including a stylized Twilight Zone intro to better introduce this story, as if it were a very expensive made for the movies episode of the show. The X-files sorta attempted this idea, as did Sex and the City. Some f/x are improved, and some scenes moved around. Of course, there's some ruthless editing of Rod Serling's narration to make this a bonafide episode of sorts. And a better trick ending IMHO that really ties this together.

This is now a true APES epic. Re-titled JOURNEY OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. For Apes fans, Twilight Zone fans and lovers of epic mythologized sci-fi!
 
ENJOY!

And while you are it....

ENTER THEATER!