DON'T expect a beached Statue of Liberty or a loincloth-wearing hero in this "reimagining" of the sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes if you see Tim Burton's new version.

This, according to the director, is not a remake or a sequel.

It's a "reimagining" of the Apes mythology (or at the very least a revisitation), drawing inspiration from Pierre Boulle's classic novel.

It does, though, deal with the same basic idea - an upside-down world where apes are in charge and humans are subservient.

And many of the elements will be familiar to fans of the 1968 masterpiece: Mark Wahlberg stars in the Charlton Heston role of an astronaut whose spaceship crash-lands (not on Earth this time); Tim Roth plays a chimpanzee general who favors exterminating the human pest; Michael Clarke Duncan is a gorilla in the ape army; and Helena Bonham Carter plays a human rights activist chimp.

The year is 2029. Pilot Leo Davidson (Wahlberg) crash-lands on a strange world inhabited by a race of barbaric talking apes.

He is immediately seized by merciless General Thade and sold into slavery.

Eager to return to home, Leo marshals the forces of other captured humans, and sympathetic activist Ari (Bonham Carter), to lead a rebellion against the Gorilla Army.

Infuriated by Leo's underhand tactics, Thade and his troops retaliate the only way they know how - with extreme violence.

Planet Of The Apes, the 2001 remix, is shot with Burton's trademark brio and quirky eye for detail.

Responsible for transforming the actors, and up to 300 extras, into simians was six-time Oscar winner Rick Baker.

"Some people may be disappointed that they don't look like the apes from the first movie," Baker says.

"But they should just accept that this is a different film."

Wahlberg agrees: "All the things people want to see from the original are there, but there are so many things they missed out on that Tim can really take advantage of. They're going to blow people's minds."