PLANET OF THE APES REVISITED; PLANET OF THE APES: RE-IMAGINED BY TIM BURTON (2008)

Mark Salisbury, screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Lawrence Konner & Mark D. Rosenthal (Newmarket Press, $22.95) In the spirit of sequels, ''re-imaginings,'' and franchise flogging come these then-and-now companion books, which, together, tell the chilling story of how intelligent apes conquered our planet via sophisticated marketing techniques. Revisited is an exhaustive tome of POTA lore, clumsily written but possessed of genuine fan-geek fervor (read: lots of unnecessary trivia). Especially interesting are accounts of the original film's precarious racial politics (the NAACP wanted to know why no black actors were initially cast as apes) and the stormy, profit-minded machinations that produced POTA's increasingly strained sequels. Speaking of profit-mindedness, Re-Imagined comprises the usual glossy studio propaganda, peppered with pretty pictures and terrifyingly vacuous star quotes: Michael Clarke Duncan on director Tim Burton: ''I call Tim Burton a mad scientist, because he looks really weird. You know how Albert Einstein looked all crazy? That's the way Tim Burton is.'' The publishers have taken that gem and blown it up in bold type. Yes, they finally, really did it! Those maniacs! They blew it up! Damn them all to hell! Revisited: B Re-Imagined: C

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