In 1968, Twilight Zone writer and creator Rod Serling was hired by 20th Century Fox to adapt Pierre Boulle's 1963 science fiction novel La Planète des Singes into a movie. When Serling's script proved too costly to film, the studio hired British novelist Xan Fielding to do a paired down rewrite that kept many elements of Serling's script, but excised the expensive parts of Boulle's novel. And thus, the original Planet of the Apes was born.
Now, 50 years later, Serling's screenplays are finally being utilized in BOOM! Studios' Planet of the Apes Visionaries, a graphic novel adaptation by comedian and former Simpsons writer and producer Dana Gould and Avengers Origins artist Chad Lewis.
To learn more about this unique adaptation, we spoke to Gould, Lewis and BOOM! editor Dafna Pleban, who oversees all things Apes.
CBR: Dafna, what prompted the decision to adapt Serling's script into a graphic novel?
Dafna Pleban: When I came on to The Planet of the Apes books seven years ago, I hadn't seen any of the movies. I then had this moment of deep stupidity after watching the first one where I said, "That was like a great episode of The Twilight Zone," to which Alex Galer, the assistant editor at the time, responded by telling me how Serling had written the original script, which he then he gave me a copy of to read. I immediately thought it would be a great opportunity for the comics. Especially after we saw the success Dark Horse had with The Star Wars [a comic adaptation of George Lucas' original and radically different Star Wars script].
So how did you think of Dana Gould to write it?
Pleban: We wanted to wait until we found the right people to do this, but Dana's name always came up whenever you'd ask someone if they knew a big fan of Planet of the Apes. So we talked on the phone first, and I knew immediately that he was the right person. He knew Serling's work, Serling's scripts, he knew Planet of the Apes, he knew what made Planet of the Apes such a compelling story, that it's a very human story and a very character-driven story, and that Serling's script really tapped into the tragedy of a person coming face to face with their own obsolesce. It was exactly the approach we wanted for this story.
Dana, why did you want to do this? And, more importantly, why did you think you were the right person to do this?
Gould: I didn't and I'm not. [laughs]
Planet of the Apes was my baseball when I was a kid. And my passion for it has never abated. So my first thought when BOOM! approached me was, "How much do I have to pay you to do this?" I was very familiar with both of Serling's drafts, and am not only an Apes fan but also a Rod Serling fan, so I humbly felt that, as a writer, I could serve Rod's words well. I didn't think I was the person to do it so much as someone smart enough to preserve what Serling did, which was always my motivation.
Is the comic based on both scripts or just one of them?
Gould: It's an amalgam of both, but more the March revision than the original December one because the first draft was very long, as first drafts usually are. Though there were times when we went back to the December draft because we wanted to tell as different a story from the movie at every turn.
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What was the hardest part about adapting a movie script into a graphic novel?
Gould: Well, Rod Serling is my hero, he's the reason why I became a writer. So waking up in the morning and figuring out what of your hero's writing you're going to cut is never a good feeling. But it can't all be in there, it's a graphic novel. The trick was capturing the tone of what he wrote. The second act is Seven Days in May [a 1964 movie also written by Serling]. It's a political thriller, it's all in board rooms and conference rooms and driving around the city at night. None of that was in the movie, but the idea of capturing that and telling that story was really exciting.
Do you think it would be easier to make Serling's script into a movie now?
Gould: Yeah. Having seen Avengers: Infinity War, I don't know what couldn't be made into a movie now. Though if it was up to me, I'd give it the treatment that Hulu gave [Stephen King's novel] 11/22/63. I think it would make a great miniseries. It's a sprawling epic.
With the book done and about to come out, has there been any talk of a sequel? Because I can think of a couple names if you need them.
Gould: [laughs] I probably shouldn't say this, but we are talking about Planet of the Apes Goes Hawaiian.
Oy!
Gould: What I'd like to do is Planet of the Apes Revisited, which was the original version of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. The whole underground culture, worshiping the bomb, I believe that all came from Serling and early script talks with Arthur P. Jacobs [who produced the five original Apes movies]. So I'd like to break down Serling's script, which I believe involves Taylor growing older, and his son with Nova coming of age and becoming much more of a war-mongering sort than he is. I think that would be an interesting story to tell.
You wouldn't want to use your book as a starting off point for something different?
Gould: No. If you have something that Rod Serling brought up, I'd be very reticent to go, "But then there's my idea." As an Apes fan, I think it would be fascinating to do Planet of the Apes Revisited; Secret of Planet of the Apes, which was the original version of Escape from the Planet of the Apes; and then the early versions of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
And would they be stand-alone books, or would they tie in with your comic?
Gould: I don't think those are mutually exclusive.
I like how Chad and Dafna have been quiet this whole time.
Pleban: I'm just fascinated to hear what's next.
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Moving on to the art; Dafna, what was it about Chad's style that made you think he was the right for this book?
Pleban: I had worked with him on a one-shot, Kong: Gods of Skull Island, and I was struck by how I could feel the camera move, which is hard in a still image. But when you're adapting an original movie script for a movie people are familiar with, you really want to bring that sense of cinema, that sense of scope, but one that's also rooted in character. And that's what Chad showed us with the Kong one-shot. We then had him do some character designs, and that sealed the deal because they felt like real people, not like people wearing masks, and that's a key distinction that, I think, Chad captures well.
So Chad, what was it about this comic that made you want to do it?
Chad Lewis: Well, I had a blast working with Dafna on Kong, and was game for whatever else came up. But when she mentioned this book, and Dana's name came up, I was like, "The guy who wrote The Simpsons and Mystery Men?" That was it, I had to do it. Though I also like anthropomorphic faces. It's kind of a passion of mine.
In figuring out how the characters would look, did you look at any other comics in which monkeys or gorillas wore human clothing?
Lewis: One of my favorite comics is Blacksad, a French comic about a private investigator who's a panther. It's phenomenal. I studied [Blacksad artist Juanjo Guarnid] in school, and it's now all over my wall and has been really inspiration. So I really looked at that.
Also, Jonas Scharf, who did War for the Planet of the Apes. You want to see some quality monkeys... We have our own styles, but his work on those books were so good.
And did you put Rod Serling in the book somewhere?
Lewis: I didn't think of that. And now I regret that we didn't do that.
Finally, Dafna, with 2018 being the 50th anniversary of Planet of the Apes, what else is BOOM! planning to celebrate the occasion?
Pleban: We have two specials coming out, they're kind of companion pieces. Both will be multiple shorts from creators who are Apes fans, one will be from the perspective of the apes, the other from the perspective of the humans, and they'll both be a mix of original Apes movie mythology and the new movies' mythology. One will be out in October, the other in December. We are also going to be releasing Planet of the Apes Omnibus, which will collect the 2011 series that [writer] Daryl Gregory and [artists] Carlos Magno and Diego Barreto did over 16 issues and three specials.
BOOM Studios' Planet of the Apes Visionaries is expected to go on sale on Aug. 28.