Planet of the Apes (2001 film) billed as "episode one in the Chronicles of Aschlar", Broyles' script caught the attention of director Tim Burton, who was hired in February 2000. "I wasn't interested in doing a remake or a sequel of the original "Planet of the Apes" film," Burton said later. "But I was intrigued by the idea of revisiting that world. Like a lot of people, I was affected by the original film. I wanted to do a 're-imagining'." Richard D. Zanuck signed on as producer in March. "This is a very emotional film for me. I greenlighted the original "Apes" when I was the
Planet of the Apes (2001 film) was hard," he says. "Stan worked on "Edward Scissorhands" and Baker did Martin Landau's makeup [as Béla Lugosi in "Ed Wood"]". On his hiring, Baker explained, "I did the Dino De Laurentiis version of "King Kong" in 1976 and was always disappointed because I wasn't able to do it as realistically as I wanted. I thought "Apes" would be a good way to make up for that." In addition to "King Kong", Baker previously worked with designing ape makeup on "", "Gorillas in the Mist", and the 1998 remake of "Mighty Joe Young". The makeup took 4.5 hours to apply