<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $33.4 million (North America) </Td> </Tr> <P> Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner . It stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison . The screenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling was loosely based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle . Jerry Goldsmith composed the groundbreaking avant - garde score . It was the first in a series of five films made between 1968 and 1973, all produced by Arthur P. Jacobs and released by 20th Century Fox . </P> <P> The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash - land on a strange planet in the distant future . Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human - like intelligence and speech . The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute creatures wearing animal skins . </P> <P> The script was originally written by Rod Serling, but underwent many rewrites before filming eventually began . Directors J. Lee Thompson and Blake Edwards were approached, but the film's producer Arthur P. Jacobs, upon the recommendation of Charlton Heston, chose Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film . Schaffner's changes included an ape society less advanced--and therefore less expensive to depict--than that of the original novel . Filming took place between May 21 and August 10, 1967, in California, Utah and Arizona, with desert sequences shot in and around Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area . The film's final "closed" cost was $5.8 million . </P>

When does the original planet of the apes take place