Aping the Author

So Kevin Smith thinks that Tim Burton’s ending for “Planet of the Apes” was lifted (Morning Report, Aug. 11). Well, it was, but not from Smith, from Pierre Boulle. The movie’s ending is just about all that it has in common with Boulle’s original novella, in which astronaut Ulysse Merou escapes the ape-world, makes it back to Earth and finds that Earth is now run by apes as well.

DAVID JAMES

Long Beach