Vintage Planet Of The Apes Behind-The-Scenes Photos And Video

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Last year’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a surprise hit and successfully resurrected the long-fallow Apes franchise. Amongst other things, Rise was praised for the effects and performances used to bring the apes to life, especially Andy Serkis as Caesar. It’s only appropriate that the new Apes movies would be on the cutting edge of movie effects, because the original films blazed many of its own trails when it came to the makeup and prosthetics used to transform the cast, earning makeup designer John Chambers and Academy Award for his work. Now a batch of behind-the-scenes photos have popped up online showing some great behind-the-scenes looks at the filming, and how good the ape makeup still looks to this day.

The pictures are the work of photographer Dennis Stock, who visited the Planet of the Apes set during 1967. I love the surreal nature of the ape characters just lounging around, inevitably trying to kill time between takes. It’s a nice reminder that a good percentage of movie-making involves standing around while other people do things.

You can check out the rest of Stock’s photographs in the gallery below, but we also ran across a collection of actor Roddy McDowall’s home movies from the set, including a look at him getting his ape makeup applied.

The next installment in the Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, opens in theaters on May 23, 2014.