At 21 Rifkin was hired by 20th Century Fox to write and direct Return of the Planet of the Apes, which he compared to
La noche de Halloween (2018) on the Best Movies Never Made podcast. In Rifkin's original script the ape empire had reached its Roman era and the film was going to feel very much like Spartacus with primates. The studio loved Rifkin's draft but several days before pre-production was to commence the head of the studio was fired and the project was shelved. Subsequently the project changed many hands including Oliver Stone, Chris Columbus, James Cameron and eventually Tim Burton.
