2011’s Planet of the Apes movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is unusual in that it has no novelized tie-in. Instead, the movie release’s tie-in book is Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, an almost-coffee-table hardcover novel featuring an original “offstage” story by Andrew Gaska (from a plot by Gaska, Rich Handley, Christian Berntsen, and Erik Matthews) set during the events of the 1968 movie, imaginatively depicted by “over 50 illustrations from various top talents in the industry, including full-color paintings by Jim Steranko, Joe Jusko, Dave Dorman, Barron Storey, Sanjulian and Mark Texeira, starship design by Andrew Probert, character portraits by Matt Busch and more!” (publisher’s catalogue).

In the 1968 movie, four astronauts are sent in frozen hibernation on a 2,006-year mission to explore an extrasolar planet. One dies en route; the other three, Taylor, Landon, and Dodge, find a planet inhabited by intelligent apes and feral humans. The astronauts are separated, and the story follows Col. George Taylor (Charlton Heston) as he interacts with the gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees; discovers Landon lobotomized and Dodge’s body stuffed and mounted in a museum; and ultimately learns that this is not an alien planet, but Earth in the far future.

Los Angeles, Archaia Entertainment, August 2011, hardcover $24.95 (268 [+ 4] pages).

Two recent articles on the BBC website have pointed to further advancements in the understanding of ape intellegence. Orang-utans, not one of the most social of great apes, still seem to be social enough to have developed regional cultures, everything from making a bronx cheer before sleeping to riding falling dead trees for the excitement. And like human cultures, once these groups are seperated, or extinct, the culture is gone too.
A group of researchers is claiming a pygmy chimpanzee they work with is talking. Well, not in full phrases, but the ape, kept as part of a linguistics group, has been noted making distinct sounds to accompany things like 'yes' or 'banana.' Given that he'll say the same sounding 'yes' whether happy or angry, it seems to be a case of spontanious vocal development, something thought not in the range of chimps.

Just confirmed today, ConFurence 2002 is pleased to announce a surprise guest for this year's Convention:

Booth Colman, Movie and Television Actor

Booth Colman is best known as the antagonist orangutan Protector of the Faith, "Dr. Zaius," in the Planet of the Apes TV Series.