How Beneath the Planet of the Apes Nearly Buried The Franchise

How the insane Beneath the Planet of the Apes almost buried the series after two movies.

At some point the idea came up: why not make a sequel?

As weve stated elsewhere, sequels at the time were not the big business they are today.

So the decision was made to produce a second movie.

Then came the hard part: where would chapter two take the story?

The obvious question was: what lay along the coastline beyond that Statue?

But the picture was nearly dealt a death blow when Charlton Heston refused to reprise the role of Taylor.

The role of that second spaceman, Brent, was originally offered to Burt Reynolds.

Then Zanuck and Heston threw one more bomb into the works literally.

For these reasons, the fans I know tend to loveBeneathwhile acknowledging its many, many flaws.

AsBeneath the Planet of the Apesproved, even the end of the world couldnt bury this franchise.