BENEATH THE POTA: First Draft Screenplay-Dec.20,1968

According to the book "POTA REVISITED" by Joe Russo and Larry Landsman the film Roddy McDowal directed was called (and I suppose you can look it up on the Internet Movie Data Base) "Tam Lin." Roddy wanted to make his directorial debut (something many actors aspire to do-going all the way back to Shakespeare and before) and asked if he could be replaced by another actor on "Beneath." The director of "Beneath"-Ted Post agreed (as Roddy had not yet become the focal point of the Apes series).

Commenting on this Kim Hunter (Zira) said that she got to know David Watson very well and liked him but she would have prefered to have had Roddy as Cornelius(such was the bond between the two of them). Still, Cornelius has a very small cameo in the film so it didn't matter. Anyway it was years untill I even realized the difference (as Roddy was at the beinging of the film and Watson's performance created the illusion it was Roddy-even though he didn't really set out to imitate Roddy-he just acted in a way he thought right for the character) Linda has said that Kim Hunter didn't appear in "POTA: 2001" because she was ill. While this is certainly true I doubt she would have appeared in it anyway as she is on record as saying she couldn't emagine doing another one without Roddy.
-cozad :hat

Author	Comment
Gene Unregistered User (6/5/03 4:46 pm) Reply	Re: Hi Stefan, Yeah, Linda does have that funny look on her face. She looks like she's thinking: "Aw man, I thought we were heading for Greenich Village, I guess we'll have to settle for this though," and Brents thinking, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" . Has "Bruce Almighty" come out in Germany yet Stefan? You should see it, it's one really funny film (you too cozad). Jim Carry is awsome in it. CYA, -Gene
cozad Unregistered User (6/5/03 5:50 pm) Reply	The moon, Linda, and Jim Carie: Thanks Stefan for giveing me more up to date info on that moon situation. Sounds like putting a tourist base on the moon is a pretty stupid idea and the idea of a colony isn't much better (because of the lack of water). But in Paul Dehns defense they didn't know all this back in 1968 when he wrote the first draft for "POTA Revisited (a.k.a. "Beneath the POTA"). Yes, I recignized that scene (with Nova and Brent seeing the apes. Brent looks shocked-like he can't believe it, and Nova looks afraid and uncomfortable). Both actor's did a great job. No Gene I haven't seen Jim Caries lattest film but it looks great. I usually wait to see these things on video. I might go watch Termenator 3 at the theater however. I'm a huge Arnald fan (I just can't figure out why a Terminator-Android from the future has a thick Austrian accent! ). Oh, BTW, there was more to the end of Pual Dehns first draft of "Beneath" than I posted. Their were two additional scenes. I'll post them soon. Hopefully tomarow (as I'll be having a busy weekend). Yes, it is great Stefan and Gene that we can all keep our flame burning for Linda and her alter ego's (Nova, Miss Star Dust, Madam [if we can ever find her], Woman in Cart [POTA:2001], Woman in business suit being anoyed by Gloria Swanson [Airport 75] and so on). -cozad
cozad Unregistered User (6/5/03 7:43 pm) Reply	The Two Remaining Final Scenes: The scene in which Taylor and Brent destroy their spaceship and debate weather or not they should teach the humans or let them remain in ignorance and the subseqent scene in which Cornelius and Zira release the human's as Nova and Taylor look on are not the final scenes of Pual Dehns origional draft for "Beneath." The final scenes take place some time after the death of Taylor; some time in the distant future: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS-DAY a small GIRL--clean, combed, neatly dressed--runs out through the open doors of a big white building and races acrosss a green lawn to join a semicircularly seated group of equally clean, combed and neatly dressed Human CHILDREN, in a shool lesson for which she is late. She squats on the grass among her attentive, note-taking shoolfellows in front of o.s. TEACHER.... TEACHER'S VOICE (o.s.; reading) "Thus, in the last battle of the last war upon Earth, in the forty-seventh year before the death of Taylor, both adersaries perished." CHILD 1 "What adversaries?" TEACHER'S VOICE (o.s.) "Enemies." CHILD 2 (younger) "What's perished?" TEACHER'S VOICE (o.s.; the stammer again) "D-died." (reading) "And the Peaople of the White City were slain by the Bomb which they had falsely been taught to worship; and, with them, were slain every warrior in the Army of the Apes, who had as falsely been taught that Apes ere the Masters of Earth." A grave SMALL BOY raises his hand. CUT TO: THE BOOK from which o.s. TEACHER has been reading. The HAND, which not enters shot to close the Book, is inhumanly hairy. We PULL BACK to reveal: CLOSE SHOT-TEACHER-A YOUNG MALE CHIMPANZEE TEACHER "Yes, Taylor." BOY "Sir, if they're all dead, why can't we play there?" TEACHER "Because the Bomb poisoned the ground, when it exploded..." LAP DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE FORBIDDEN ZONE-DAY CAMERA PROWLING a desolate concavity in which nothing grows. TEACHER'S VOICE (o.s.) "And even today, the poison is still trapped under the Forbidden Zone." As we CROSS-FADE TEACHER'S voice to the whistling of a dry wind above the crater, CAMERA SLOWLY CLOSES to: THE SMALLEST OF MEOVEMENTS AT THE SURFACE A square inch of earth twitches...widens...heaves...and opens, finallyh, to extrude a hairy, six-fingered hand. The hand beomes a gorilla's arm, purulent with radio-active sores. The arm, flexing and unflexing, widens the hole through which it thrust, till the surrounding scree and shingle falls away with a rattle to reveal the mouth of a tunneled octogonal hole. Out of it clambers an apallingly mutated GORILLA, holding in his other hand one of the corroded pickaxes originally used by the Ape Pioneers. He shuts infected eyes as red as garnets against the unaccustomed light of day; and, with his free arm, hauls out by the head GORILLA 2, whose own arms are mere vestigial six inches long. aGORILLA 3 follows, carrying a rusted Ape Army rifle. ONe eye is milky-blind; one leg so much shorter than the other that he must hop instead of walk. GORILLA 1, grunting in-articulately, throws down his pickaxe. Over the CLANK! we: CUT TO: A GROUND DOVE, RESTING ON THE CRATER'S RIM Starteled into flight. CUT TO: GORILLA GROUP Instinctively GORILLA 3 raises his rifle and aims it with his good eye. Then, steadied and supported on his one leg by GORILLA 1 and 2--a hideous group!--he fires. CUT TO: THE DOVE tumbling and falling down the ocne peaceful sky. As it hits hte earth we FREEZE SHOT and: ROLL UP END TITLES: [OK I'm taking over this part-cozad] PLANET OF THE APES REVISITED Staring Linda Harrison as Nova. Co-staring James Franciscus as Brent. Special Apperance by Charlton Heston as Taylor (who opposed the making of this film in every way and whom we had a terrible time talking out of blowing up the world and thus ruining the movie). Featuring: Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans (who was a terrific sport and thought this sequal a great idea) James Greggory (Up Apes!) Natalie Trundy (fabulous babe) David Watson (standing in for Roddy who's off directing this really terrible film) And several other people. Note: No humans, mutants or Gorrillas were injured durring the making of this film. -cozad
Gene Unregistered User (6/5/03 7:52 pm) Reply	Yo Hi, Wow, weard ending, it may have been better of with just stopping at the part where Brent destroyes the bomb. It kind of has the same ending as "Battle." Glad you took over from there cozad. It looks like the script had Nova in the whole story, which is great, I like this version a lot better. Yeah, see the film cozad, it really is great. Later, -Gene
cozad Unregistered User (6/6/03 6:24 am) Reply	Re:Yo Yes, it was a weird ending, Gene. Yes, the scene with the teacher and the students is remenisent of the scene with the Law Giver and the children at the end of Battle. Also, the fact that there were mutant descendents of the gorilla soldgers that invaded the Forbidden Zone would indicate that the orgional invadeing gorilla force (that set off the bomb) was composed of both male and female gorilla's. That's a huge improvement over the Ape movies which only showed female chimps and organgutans but never dipicted female gorilla's. -cozad
Speed Demon Registered User Posts: 224 (6/6/03 1:58 pm) Reply	Hi again... Hi, Gene, I'm not sure about that new Jim Carrey movie, but thanks for the hint, I like Jim Carrey, too - he's great. cozad, thanks again for that excerpt. I agree with Gene, that ending was strange, it should have ended before. But we're used to these insane ideas of the writers - I mean we know "Beneath"... $:\$ . *Quote:* I might go watch Termenator 3 at the theater however. I'm a huge Arnald fan (I just can't figure out why a Terminator-Android from the future has a thick Austrian accent! Yes, I like Schwarzenegger, too . It's so funny - many Americans seem to enjoy they can make fun of his Austrian accent. I really wonder if that is part of his success . Oh, BTW, in Austria they speak German as you might know (only with an Austrian accent, too), but Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't dub his movies for Germany, probably because it might seem to "ridiculous". It's hard to explain, but English with an Austrian accent is not that ridiculous. *Quote:* Special Apperance by Charlton Heston as Taylor (who opposed the making of this film in every way and whom we had a terrible time talking out of blowing up the world and thus ruining the movie). - that's right... they should have put that description right to the beginning of "Beneath"... *Quote:* David Watson (standing in for Roddy who's off directing this really terrible film) And several other people. So you saw that movie? Was it that terrible? By the way, I read on the ImdB yesterday the opening prolog is actually spoken by McDowall, but I don't know if all of it is taken from part one or if he might have at least spoken that lines for part 2? (Do you know?) *Quote:* Note: No humans, mutants or Gorrillas were injured durring the making of this film. That's right, it's important in this case to point out no humans were hurt. BTW, do you agree the horses in the movie might have been hurt? In some scenes, they fell down on the ground... $:\$ (like in many westerns)... I really wonder if they can do that without getting hurt... CYA Stefan
cozad Unregistered User (6/6/03 2:39 pm) Reply	Re:Hi again... Well, I don't know about the horses. POTA was made a long time ago as was 'Beneath' and I don't think they were quite as humane in their treatment of animals as they are today (and that is by no means to say there isn't room for improvement to this day. Peta is often demonstrating against the use of apes and dolphins and so on in films and comericials). Yes, Arnolds accent is his trade-mark. It's great. And I'm impressed that you can spell Schwarzenegger. It's pretty easy if you make the effort to remember it. No I didn't see that film Roddy McDowal directed. I have heard, however, that it may possibly not have ended up being what he had hoped it would be going into the project (unless I'm mistaken it may well have been a flop). But his part was only a cameo anyway so no big loss. Roddy ended up taking over the whole franchise anyway thanks to Heston bowing out and Franciscus being forced kicking and sceaming into haveing his character killed off, and so on. (I think I read somewhere that Franciscus would have been in all the sequels had they let him-but I might have my facts confused. But he was definitely enthusiastic about "Beneath.") So his absense in Beneath was no big deal (and as you mentioned that was Roddy in the begining of "Beneath". BTW, I don't know if Roddy re-recorded his lines for Beneath or if they just used recordings from the first film. I'm assumeing the latter since that would have been cheeper and "Beneath" was already on a tight budget). cozad
Gene Unregistered User (6/6/03 3:10 pm) Reply	stuff Hi guys, Too bad the film ended the way it did rather than the first draft of the script. Franciscus probably would have come back for the sequels, he said this: "The reason I wanted to do it was because normally I'm in a coat and tie being very intellectual. This was a nice departure for me- and I looked upon it as just a nice big adventure Western. It was something I don't often get offered, so I just had a ball doing it. I enjoyed the picture and loved doing it. And I like the end product" Perhaps he would have done it all again since he like doing it so much. I practically saw everything James Franciscus means when he's talking about "Beneath." He seemed to be the only one with a positive attitude about the picture. I also learned that James Franciscus didn't want to become famouse on his website. Now I see why he wasn't so famouse. He was pretty unique though. I really have to see some of his other movies. Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to tell you guys that I saw "Goldfinger," pretty cool movie. Which reminds me that I should rent "Die another day," now and see it. But tonight I'm going to see "The Matrix: Reloaded." Later, -Gene
Speed Demon Registered User Posts: 226 (6/9/03 11:21 am) Reply	Re: Re: Hi, cozad, thanks for the info about Roddy McDowall... *Quote:* Peta is often demonstrating against the use of apes and dolphins and so on in films and comericials). Sorry, but who's "Peta"? Gene, interesting - so at least Franciscus liked "Beneath". Honestly I think it's kind of sad Linda says the only movie she can watch is POTA and not BTPOTA. Oh, hello Linda! No, but seriously, I mean she (you, Linda) had a more important part in BTPOTA, she (you) should be proud. . Bye Stefan
cozad Unregistered User (6/9/03 12:10 pm) Reply	Peta: Peta stands for PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS. They're an organization that advocates ledgislation to protect animals from being harmed or exploited. I know a little about them from the internet (as they have several web-sites). Like all organizations there are some stands they take that I agree with and so I don't. But I don't want to get into that here. As for Linda being proud of her role in "Beneath" I agree that she should be proud-she was great! -cozad
cozad Unregistered User (6/9/03 12:39 pm) Reply	More on Roddy: According to the book "POTA REVISITED" by Joe Russo and Larry Landsman the film Roddy McDowal directed was called (and I suppose you can look it up on the Internet Movie Data Base) "Tam Lin." Roddy wanted to make his directorial debut (something many actors aspire to do-going all the way back to Shakespeare and before) and asked if he could be replaced by another actor on "Beneath." The director of "Beneath"-Ted Post agreed (as Roddy had not yet become the focal point of the Apes series). Commenting on this Kim Hunter (Zira) said that she got to know David Watson very well and liked him but she would have prefered to have had Roddy as Cornelius(such was the bond between the two of them). Still, Cornelius has a very small cameo in the film so it didn't matter. Anyway it was years untill I even realized the difference (as Roddy was at the beinging of the film and Watson's performance created the illusion it was Roddy-even though he didn't really set out to imitate Roddy-he just acted in a way he thought right for the character) Linda has said that Kim Hunter didn't appear in "POTA: 2001" because she was ill. While this is certainly true I doubt she would have appeared in it anyway as she is on record as saying she couldn't emagine doing another one without Roddy. -cozad
Speed Demon Registered User Posts: 228 (6/9/03 2:44 pm) Reply	Re: Re: Thanks again for sharing all that interesting stuff, cozad... you are like an "open book" . Yes, I, too, had no idea that it wasn't Roddy in part 2. But you know what - in the German version it is even more difficult to notice it as it is the same voice (I mean the German voice actor, you know). I only saw the English version two times yet (thank DVD), but you told me the English voice is very similar also... That's different to e.g. "007 - On her majesty's secret service" ('though they had the same German voice for Sean Connery and George Lazenby, you could easily tell the difference ). CYA Stefan Beauty queen Nova with an insane guy who rather wants to fall into a cliff... .
Do what I wanna Posts: 11 (3/24/04 1:54 pm) Reply	Re Some more moments from "Beneath" ... Linda looks wonderful... DO WHAT I WANNA! - aka *SPEED DEMON*

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