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Beginning in 1963 until his death, he was responsible for film productions such as the Planet of the Apes series, Doctor Dolittle, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Play It Again, Sam and Tom Sawyer through his company APJAC Productions.
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APJAC International Productions was a movie production company founded in 1956 by Arthur P. Jacobs, who already headed his own publicity agency, The Arthur P. Jacobs Co., Inc. APJAC's first production was What a Way to Go!, directed by J. Lee Thompson. The 1964 comedy was initially intended as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, before her death in August 1962 left the role to Shirley MacLaine, and co-starred many of Jacobs' other PR agency clients. The successful movie was followed by plans for family musical Doctor Doolittle, while the company struggled to get approval for Jacobs' pet project, a movie adaptation of Pierre Boulle's French novel La Planète des singes (Planet of the Apes). Mort Abrahams was executive vice-president and associate producer (and later producer) of APJAC’s movies from about January 1966 until 1969. As Jacobs' right-hand man, Abrahams gave practical experience to Jacobs' vision and concentrated on script and production matters while his partner blazed ahead with stars and publicity. Although his title was associate producer, he hired writers and actors and in today's parlance he would simply have shared the producer credit with Jacobs, who might even have been labelled executive producer. Abrahams explained that in 1963, Arthur had met with Allain Bernheim, a literary agent in Paris, who gave him the novel. Arthur was immediately struck by it and called Richard Zanuck of Twentieth Century Fox, who optioned the rights for Arthur.
It was reported in January 1967 that Jerome Hellman Productions had merged into APJAC Productions, with Hellman and Jacobs as partners and Abrahams continuing as production vice-president. At that time, APJAC were said to be still filming Doctor Doolittle and preparing movie projects Planet of the Apes, Midnight Cowboy (a Jerome Hellman production), Choice Cuts (a Twentieth Century Fox black comedy with a James Bridges screenplay of a novel by French writers Thomas Boileau and Pierre Narcjac; the book was eventually adapted as Body Parts in 1991), Goodbye Mr. Chips (a roadshow musical for MGM), The Man Who Was Thursday (a Leslie Bricusse musical of G.K. Chesterton's novel), All the Beautiful People (from a Richard Dowling novel) and A Time of Glory (a World War I aviation adventure thriller by Charles K. Peck jr.). Three months later, Fox's Richard D. Zanuck announced a fifth production arrangement with APJAC; Jacobs and Hellman had acquired a Tom Naud original story and screenplay tentatively titled Thunder Over Dahomey, the other co-productions being Doctor Doolittle, Planet of the Apes, Choice Cuts and All Night Stand. While some of these projects never came to fruition and Midnight Cowboy was passed over for not being "family-friendly", Doctor Doolittle received it's world premier before Queen Elizabeth II at the London Odeon on 12 December 1967 and Planet of the Apes was filmed between May and August 1967 for a February 1968 release. The enormous success of Apes spawned a series of four further Planet of the Apes film sequels from APJAC between 1970 and 1973, as well as plans for a TV spin-off.
•What a Way to Go! (1964)
•Doctor Doolittle (1967)
•Planet of the Apes (1968)
•The Chairman (1969)
•Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969)
•Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
1.The Making of Planet of the Apes, by J.W. Rinzler (2018)
2.Who Was Who in America: 1974-76, v. 6 - Marquis (Feb 1977)
3.The Legend of the Planet of the Apes by Brian Pendreigh
4.Planet of the Apes Revisited, by Edward Gross, Larry Landsman & Joe Russo - WorldCat (2001)
5.Jacobs, Hellman Merge Under APJAC Banner - 'Boxoffice' (January 16 1967)
6.APJAC Sets Fifth Film For 20th-Fox Release - 'Boxoffice' (April 24 1967)
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Arthur P. Jacobs produced the first five Apes films through APJAC Productions for distributor 20th Century Fox; following his death in 1973, Fox controlled the franchise, before its acquisition by Disney in 2019.
APJAC Productions (US) 1-12 of 12. Sort by Popularity. View full company info for APJAC Productions (US) 1. Planet of the Apes. 1968 1h 52m G. 8.0 (190K) Rate. 79 Metascore. An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant and humans are enslaved. Votes 189,911. 2. Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
May 15, 2024 · Charlton Heston, far left, starred in the first “Planet of the Apes” film, from 1968. APJAC Productions
Jacob's APJAC productions brought the budget estimate down to $5.8 million and produced a screen test starring Heston as astronaut Thomas and Edward G. Robinson as the orangutan Doctor Zaius.
