Rod Serling, the creator of the television series The Twilight Zone, co-wrote the screenplay to what blockbuster movie?

Rod Serling (1924-1975) who was the creator and host of the sci-fi fantasy series The Twilight Zone, co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film, Planet of the Apes that starred Charlton Heston. Born on December 25, 1924, Serling created and hosted The Twilight Zone in 1959 which had a successful run until 1964.

In 1968, Serling co-wrote the screenplay for Planet of the Apes with Michael Wilson which was a success at the box office earning the film 33.4 million dollars in North America alone on a 5.8 million dollar budget.

The movie received two academy award nominations for Best Original Music Score (Jerry Goldsmith) and Best Costume Design (Morton Haack). Neither won the Oscar.

Interestingly, in season one, episode 15 originally airing on January 15, 1960, Rod Serling wrote the teleplay for "I Shot an Arrow into the Air," This was a story of a space flight which lands on what the astronauts believe to be an unknown asteroid. In fact, they have landed on a desert in the state of Nevada on Earth. This plot would seem to foreshadow the coming story of Planet of the Apes. Serling was consistent with his themes and you could certainly see a similarity in an earlier Twilight Zone episode to the blockbuster movie he would eventually co-write.