BIG ISLE LAVA COULD LURE FILM 'VISITOR'

By Tim Ryan

From Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 08.14.2000

Scouting of Big Island locations for The Visitor, 20th Century Fox's update of Planet of the Apes, is continuing with a major technical scout planned for later this month.

The studio and director Tim Burton are considering several volcanic areas for what sources believe will be a $100-million-plus budget film. If Hawaii is chosen, filming here would begin in December, Burton told the Star-Bulletin when he was scouting Maui in May.

Burton said he hopes to begin shooting the film in October with a 2001 summer release.

Helena Bonham Carter will portray the ape princess, who believes apes and humans can coexist. Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Estella Warren will also star.

The script is being written by William Broyles Jr. and the producer is Richard Zanuck, who was head of production at Fox back in the late 1960s when the original five Apes films got started.

The Visitor plot has been a closely guarded secret. However Burton said it will be a "reimagining" of the Apes series set in a world where men are enslaved by apes.