Planet of the Apes (1968 film) was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise, including four sequels, as well as a short-lived television show, animated series, comic books, and various merchandising. In particular, Roddy McDowall had a long-running relationship with the "Apes" series, appearing in four of the original five films (absent, apart from a brief voiceover, from the second film of the series, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", in which he was replaced by David Watson in the role of Cornelius), and also in the television series. The original series was followed by Tim Burton's remake "Planet of the Apes" in
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