Cinema
James Cameron slams Tim Burton's 'Planet of the Apes' reboot: "The most egregious"
The director of ‘Avatar’ and ‘Titanic’ does not have fond memories of the 2001 reboot of one of the most popular sci-fi sagas.
With the upcoming release of ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ this Friday, May 10th, we wanted to look back a few years before the current ape saga, specifically to 2001 and the release of one of Tim Burton’s most controversial films: his reimagining of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ myth, starring Mark Wahlberg. A reboot of sorts that was a huge box-office success, but left mixed feelings among critics and audiences. And it seems that James Cameron, the famous director of films like ‘Avatar’ or ‘Titanic’, did not like it too much.
James Cameron thinks “they miscast the director”
After the first five installments of the saga of ‘Planet of the Apes’ between 1968 and 1973, the franchise’s popularity plummeted due to the declining quality of each new installment. It was not until 1988, twenty years after the premiere of the first installment, that a project to make a new sequel was launched, although the idea was rejected by major directors such as Peter Jackson, Oliver Stone, Sam Raimi, Roland Emmerich or James Cameron himself for a film that could have starred actors such as Tom Cruise or Charlie Sheen.
But more than a decade later, Fox was still determined to make a new installment of the ape saga, so the project fell into the hands of Tim Burton, a filmmaker who already had a more than stellar filmography and a very personal vision of the seventh art; and therein lies the biggest problem with the ‘Planet of the Apes’ reboot by the ‘Batman’ director, according to James Cameron in Ain’t It Cool (via Far Out):
“They turned out, I think, possibly the most egregious film that they could have on that subject because they miscast the director. It’s the only Tim Burton film that I don’t like,” said the director at the time, who was relentless about Burton’s vision for the ‘Planet of the Apes’ mythos. Some time later, Tim Burton himself said he would “jump out of a window” rather than make a sequel to ‘Planet of the Apes’, so Cameron can rest assured; that it will never happen.