The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Primate showing

EXCLUSIVE


By THOMAS WHITAKER
Showbiz Reporter

Planet Of The Apes got its first UK screening yesterday - in
front of a family of GORILLAS.

And it was such a hu-oooh-oooh-ge hit with its hairy audience, they went
bananas and beat their chests with excitement.

Zoo keepers organised a video of clips from the film - starring Tim Roth and
Helena Bonham Carter - after publicity about the movie caused a massive rise
in visitors to the gorilla enclosure.

The Sun was invited to watch as eight beasts got a private show of the
smash, which does not officially open across Britain for another nine days.

Playful four-year-old Buu was first to leap up and bang on the glass as the
amazingly realistic costumes appeared on screen.

Then her aunt Bafer, aged 33, beat her chest in appreciation.Finally head of
the family Kumba, also 33, dragged his 35st frame right up to the TV and sat
transfixed as a fight scene unfolded.

Head keeper Chris Anscombe, of Chessington World of Adventures, in Surrey,
said: "At first they were a bit tentative about the TV being there - then
curiosity got the better of them.

"By the end they were jumping up as if they wanted to be in the front row of
the cinema."

He added: "Interest in the gorillas has been unprecedented because of all
the talk about the film. It's choc-a-bloc with humans outside their cage.

"We thought we'd show the animals what all the fuss is about."

Zoo visitor Emily Carson, 11, from New Malden, Surrey, witnessed the monkey
business.

She said: "It was cute. The gorillas looked scared at first but then started
coming up to the TV, one by one."

The film, which has broken box office records in America, premieres in
London on August 14.