Ape City inspirations

Goreme Valley in Turkey, Antonio Gaudi from Spain and Ape City, Eastern coast of USA
22 Pins
·
10y
William Creber praised the contribution of Mentor Huebner towards the design of the movie's Ape City: "I had an artist, Mentor Huebner, still a very famous and fine motion picture illustrator, putting all those pieces of research together to get a look, having no idea how we would ultimately build it."
Erosion shaped the incredible landscape of the Goreme valley, but thousands of years ago humans took a cue from Mother Nature and began carving an incredible chamber and tunnel complex into the soft rock.
William Creber's objective was " to find something really original and different, in line with and opposed to Pierre Boulle's concept, which took place in a contemporary environment."
The huge Ape City set, with it's many buildings, public squares, streets, shoreline, huge outdoor amphitheatre and stockade, was built in April/May 1967 on the Fox studio's ranch near Malibu, California.
The idea was put forward that a primitive city would be less costly to build and would therefore save money, which would be better used in the make-up department.
The primary threats to this World Heritage site come from the forces that created it in the first place. Erosion is returning some human endeavours to a more natural state, and extensive preservation efforts are meant to ensure that the wonders of Goreme survive for another millennium.
Michael Wilson said, "There's a Spanish architect named Antonio Gaudi, who is considered a great man in Spain and has some marvellous architecture there. His architecture suggests a kind of arborial past; some of the columns of his buildings seem like giant trunks of trees. I took this to the art director and he agreed that this was inspirational."
For more than a thousand years, people have made their homes in the soft rock of Cappadocia within the Goreme National Park. Beginning in the fourth century A.D., an urbanized, but underground, cultural landscape was created here.
Art director William Creber said, "The challenge was to make up a style of life that these people might have developed because they would be strong, good with their hands. We kind of invented an architecture that was as far from anything Earth-like as we could go. We were inspired by Gaudi, and the Goreme Valley in Turkey."
Producer Arthur P. Jacobs had wisely employed William Creber as Art Director, and he was given the task to design the city in which the intelligent apes lived.
Unique rock formations, from fairy chimneys to Love Valley and beautiful Ihlara Valley, along with monasteries and churches, underground cities make this an inspiring place.
Rod Serling's original script had modern buildings, but as time went on the idea of a complex setting was abandoned in favour of simple, less complicated hut dwellings.
Cappadocia is settled on a high, dry plateau in the middle of Turkey. The region is one of hot, dry summers and cold, sometimes snowy, winters.
Ancient volcanic eruptions blanketed this region with thick ash, which solidified into a soft rock—called tuff—tens of metres thick. Wind and water went to work on this plateau, leaving only its harder elements behind to form a fairy tale landscape of cones, pillars, pinnacles, mushrooms, and chimneys. These stretch as far as 130 feet (40 metres) into the sky.