Planet of the Apes into limbo, creating their own story based on Boulle's novel and the original films. The game is an action-adventure in which players control astronaut Ulysses as he explores an ape-ruled future Earth. Fox Interactive's decision to co-publish with another company, Ubisoft, further delayed the game's release. Despite its long development, the game missed the debut of Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" film by two months; it finally appeared on September 20, 2001, to mostly negative reviews. Additionally, Ubisoft produced a substantially different "Planet of the Apes" game for Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color, a side-scroller following the
Planet of the Apes independent film director, would develop a new "Apes" movie. At a Fox executive's invitation, Rifkin pitched a concept for "Return to the Planet of the Apes", an alternative sequel to "Planet" that ignored the other four films. In Rifkin's initial concept, Taylor's descendant Duke launches a Spartacus-like uprising against Roman-inspired ape oppressors led by General Izan. Days before the project was scheduled to enter pre-production, Fox brought in new studio executives who sent it back to development. They commissioned Rifkin to write several redrafts, but found them unsatisfactory and ultimately scrapped the project. After several years in limbo, Fox returned