Oppressed humans and enthusiastic movie goers won't be the only ones cheering when Mark Wahlberg goes up against the super monkeys of Planet of the Apes.
Other highly evolved primates -- these ones occupying the corner offices in Hollywood studios -- will be thumping their chests, hoping director Tim Burton's new opus will lead to yet another movie "franchise."
The franchise has long been a Hollywood staple (The Lone Ranger, James Bond) and a safety net.
When one-off movies perform poorly, studios can always fall back on Rocky 16, Nutty Professor 5 or other titles that will never win best picture Oscars but will consistently put bottoms in theater seats.
This summer alone, Universal is offering The Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park III, while Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are back in New Line Cinema's Rush Hour 2.
Angelina Jolie's deal with Paramount locks her into at least one sequel to Laura Croft: Tomb Raider, while follow-ups to Dr. Doolittle, The Matrix, Stuart Little and Shrek are all on the drawing board.
Four Planet of the Apes sequels evolved from 20th Century Fox's campy 1968 original starring Charlton Heston.
Richard Zanuck, who greenlighted the original, is the producer of the new movie, which the studio insists on calling a "reimagination" rather than a remake of the first movie.
"If it is successful, I am assuming [the studio] would like to start a whole new franchise based on this movie," Zanuck told the Hollywood Reporter, "because this picture is entirely different than the first `Planet' or any of the others."
Ironically, he is not a lover of the franchise.
"They represent a paucity of fresh ideas," he said.
"There is a safety factor in dealing with a known subject, whereas you don't have that safety factor when you are going out with something absolutely brand new."
But franchises can be costly, especially when big-name stars are tied to them.
Sam Neill reportedly wanted US$15 million for Jurassic Park III, and Rush Hour 2's Chris Tucker got US$20 million, up from US$3 million for the first installment.
Mel Gibson earned more than US$20 million for Lethal Weapon 4, and the movie just broke even.
Brendan Fraser is expected to demand that much for another Mummy, the same sum he reportedly turned down to reprise his role in George of the Jungle 2.
"If your franchise is built around specific actors, you have to pay -- and that gives them tremendous leverage," Artisan CEO Amir Malin told the Reporter.
Burton himself was leery of taking on simian cinema.
"You have a better chance of surviving a jump off a building than to do a remake of Planet of the Apes," the director of Batman and Sleepy Hollow says. "The original film is quite unique and amazing, chemically magical in a certain way."
"It's also a perfect movie of its time, almost like a time capsule," Burton says. "You just can't redo the Statue of Liberty. It wouldn't be the same. There's no way to redo Charlton Heston, either."
With rare exceptions, franchises can also flop, critically and financially. Each sequel of the original Apes was worse than the last, and each Rocky sequel made viewers wish Sylvester Stallone had moved on after the acclaimed first one.
Babe sequels also lost money, as did Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.
RSS