The “dumb” ending that was cut from ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’
The reboot of the Planet of the Apes movie franchise in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes far exceeded many cinema fans’ expectations, and the seventh instalment in the film series was well-received by critics along the way.
The film, directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, starred Andy Serkis as the main ape Caesar and was joined by the likes of James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton and David Oyelowo. Franco’s character, scientist Will Rodman, raises Caesar, a genetically enhanced chimpanzee, who eventually leads an ape uprising against humankind.
All of the reboot movies have been produced by Dylan Clark, and Clark once explained that he, too, had been sceptical of bringing the franchise back to the screen until he finally read Jaffa and Silver’s script. By making Caesar the star of the show, Clark was convinced and moved forward with the project.
However, certain parts of the original script were not quite to Clark’s tastes, and he pointed out in an interview with Den of Geek that it features an ending that would have been “dumb” and “idiotic” had it gone ahead. It would have seen Dofman shot and killed by the owner of the primate’s shelter-come-prison.
Brian Cox’s character, John Landon, is the owner of the shelter, and the initially proposed ending would have had him gun Rodman down. The scene was in the script even up to the moment of shooting it, at which point Clark decided that it should not be used.
“In the first movie, in the script for Rise, James Franco dies,” Clark said. “Then we didn’t kill him. We were shooting, and I remember saying, ‘You know what? This is just gonna be a bummer. People are just gonna be like, ‘Augh’.’ It was a dumb scene, is the truth.”
The producer continued: “We had Brian Cox coming out of nowhere and shooting James Franco. The scene, dramatically, was idiotic. And worse, it just made you feel bad. It was just like, ‘Oh my God, this is the worst movie ever.'”
In the end, the scene was changed so that Rodman survives and has a chance to say goodbye to Caesar before he leaves to join his fellow apes in the forest. Franco’s character had a cameo in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes before it was suggested that he had died along with several million other members of humankind.
