Mark Wahlberg joined the film after meeting with Tim Burton for only five minutes. He was so anxious to work with Burton that he agreed to play any part. Wahlberg dropped out of the role of Linus in Ocean's Eleven (2001) to do this film.
Tim Roth suffered extensively in the role of General Thade. He didn't mind the hours and hours spent in the make-up chair, but found the costume extremely constricting. By the end of the shoot, he had trapped nerves and two herniated vertebrae in his back.
Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison are the only actors to appear in both this film and Planet of the Apes (1968).
In an interview with MTV, while comparing this film with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Mark Wahlberg blamed 20th Century Fox for screwing the film up, saying, "I haven't seen it yet, but I heard it was pretty damn good. Well, ours wasn't. It is what it is. Ours wasn't. They didn't have the script right. Fox Studios had a release date before Tim Burton had shot a foot of film. They were pushing him and pushing him in the wrong direction. You have to let Tim do his thing."
Rick Baker: When the humans are transported into the Ape City in the cage, three apes are sitting smoking a water pipe. The ape in the middle with gray hair and beard taking a puff is Baker, who designed all the ape make-up for the movie.
Linda Harrison: "Nova" from Planet of the Apes (1968), plays one of the humans in the rolling cage that takes Leo to Ape City. She is the woman next to him who shakes her head "no" when Leo speaks.
Tim Burton: [The Wizard of Oz (1939)] When the humans are escaping the ape city, one in-charge ape says to his search party: "You go that way, and you go that way; the rest of you follow me" - which is extremely reminiscent of a line the Wicked Witch of the West says to her flying monkeys, when ordering them to trap Dorothy and her companions, during the climatic escape scene from the Wizard of Oz .
Tim Burton: [Stanley Kubrick] There are visual references to Spartacus (1960) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Tim Burton: [classical music] Part of the soundtrack sounds suspiciously similar to Mars from The Planets by Gustav Holst.