Tim Burton refused to make a sequel to one of his greatest hits, and for very good reason!
It happens that in Hollywood, stars drop a film halfway through or leave before it sinks. Tim Burton, for his part, remained at the helm of Planet of the Apes, which he had committed to making, but swore that he would not be hired again.
Make no mistake: this is how you recognize a Tim Burton film!
His version of Planet of the Apes was a reboot before it was fashionable, but also poorly done masks (to the point that the actors couldn’t hear the directions) instead of the performance capture of Lord of the Rings and above all a film launched with a delivery date for the finished product that is very complicated to achieve!
The director and his team did what they could to manage to have a Planet of the Apes broadcastable for the mandated release date of summer 2001. At the worldwide box office, the film totaled $362.2 million, or nearly 630 million today, adjusted for inflation. It is still to this day the 2nd biggest success of the franchise behind Planet of the Apes: Showdown (2014). The question of a sequel therefore arises.
Twentieth Century Fox
At the time, the press reviews were correct, resulting in an average 3.2 stars out of 5 on AlloCiné, and the public was roughly aligned with 2.9 out of 5. This still marks a disappointment for Fox, which is reluctant to launch a sequel. Even if the end of the film is open, Tim Burton clearly does not want to repeat it:
I would rather throw myself out of the window than imagine doing it. I swear to you !
A somewhat melodramatic statement, which the director released on August 16, 2001, a week BEFORE the film’s release in France, at the microphone of Guardian. Burton joined the project in the spring of 2000 and had to wait until October of the same year to have the budget and the film fully validated by the studio, which left him with bitter memories:
Twentieth Century Fox
“Here’s what I would do differently: [j’aurais] the f***ing green light from the start so as not to go around in circles for six months without any positive work being accomplished.”
Despite this success, Tim Burton knows that he disappointed part of the public. and even if he will never stop touring, he will have difficulty in the 2000s to experience the successes of his beginnings again, whether with Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Funeral Wedding or Sweeney Todd.
As for the Planet of the Apes franchise, it took off a few years later with Planet of the Apes: Origins and its two sequels. In May 2024, Fox will release a new opus, Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom, which takes place “several generations later” the latest trilogy to date.