French novelist Pierre Boulle penned the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai in 1954. The story was based on his experiences in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. Three years later, Boulle received credit for writing the screenplay for David Lean's adaptation and even took home an Oscar for his script. However, it eventually came out that the film's real screenwriters were blacklistees Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Boulle's other most famous novel, Planet of the Apes, was made into a film in 1968 and remade in 2001. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide