- Mark Wahlberg joined the film after meeting with Tim Burton for only five minutes. He was so anxious to work with the director that he agreed to play any part. Wahlberg dropped out of the role of Linus in Ocean's Eleven (2001) to do this film. He refused to wear a loincloth like Charlton Heston did in Planet of the Apes (1968) because he did not want to remind audiences of his underwear modeling.
- Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] Scarecrows
- Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] music (Danny Elfman)
- Michael Clarke Duncan had sprained his ankle during filming and was forced to go to the hospital in his full gorilla makeup.
- Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan) says to Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), "Take your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty human!" mirroring the original line from George Taylor (Charlton Heston) ("Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!")
- Director Tim Burton has been quoted as saying that he has a fear of monkeys. He changed the character of Thade from a White Gorilla to a Chimpanzee for this reason.
- Charlton Heston, star of Planet of the Apes (1968) as well as National Rifle Association President, is the only ape with a gun. He passes the gun to his son Thade, while he dies speaking the line "Damn them! Damn them all to hell!", a variation of his character's last lines in the original: "Damn you! God damn you all to hell!". Tim Roth, a vocal supporter of gun control, was originally uncomfortable with this pro-gun scene. But Tim Burton persuaded him, and Roth "decided that it was okay because it's fiction."
- The starship Oberon is named after a selfish faerie king of immense power in William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Thade is based on Hideki Tojo, the Japanese Minister of War who decided to go to war with the United States in 1941.
- In the space of 33 years since the original adaptation, the budget multiplied almost twenty-fold.
- In order to star in the film, Tim Roth declined the role of Professor Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).
- Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison are the only actors to appear in both this film and the 1968 original version.
- Cameo: [Rick Baker] When the humans are transported into the Ape City in the cage, three apes are sitting smoking a Water Pipe. The Ape in the middle with gray hair and beard taking a puff, is Makeup Designer Rick Baker, who designed all the Ape makeup for the movie.
- Different versions of this film were in development since 1988. Directors involved in pre-production over the years include Alan Rifkin, Sam Raimi, Oliver Stone, Phillip Noyce, Chuck Russell, Chris Columbus, Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, and Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes. In 1993, Oliver Stone wanted Terry Hayes as writer and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role. James Cameron dropped out in 1997 after the success of Titanic (1997).
- WILHELM SCREAM: A human soldier screams during the war near the end of the film.
- Djimon Hounsou turned down the role of Attar because he was filming The Four Feathers (2002).
- Paul Giamatti was inspired by W.C. Fields for his performance.
- One of the considered endings had Leo Davidson crash-landing at Yankee Stadium and seeing apes playing baseball. This scene was originally suggested in 1995 by Fox executive Dylan Sellers when Phillip Noyce and Terry Hayes were attached. When Hayes submitted a script without the baseball scene, Sellers fired him and Noyce quit. Tim Burton wanted the scene but it was cut due to budgetary concerns.
- Cameo: [Linda Harrison] Harrison, who played Nova in the original film, plays one of the humans in the rolling cage that takes 'Mark Wahlberg''s character to Ape City. She is the woman next to him who shakes her head "no" when Wahlberg speaks.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: The "police ape" at the end of the movie wears a modified helmet from Starship Troopers (1997). The helmet was simply painted black and a visor was added (transparent plastic). You can see that the helmet does not fit correctly over the makeup appliances.
- SPOILER: The "reworked" Tim Burton ending for this film is based on the original book ending as written by Pierre Boulle. The DVD endpapers notes offer a clue to the logic of the ending: "Maybe someone went back to earth before Captain Leo Davidson".
- SPOILER: At the beginning, when the Oberon receives the "loop" transmission, an elderly version of Gen. Vasich's distress recording is briefly glimpsed, suggesting that causality and time travel will be very integral to the plot.
- SPOILER: Whereas the original movie was set on a future Earth, this version is set on a different planet (two moons in the sky above the ape encampment in the scene on the road to "Calima").
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