The latest hit making the rounds on YouTube might have just as easily come from a live action version of the Jungle Book, but it's really part of a viral marketing campaign for the latest Planet of the Apes flick.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxqIITtTtU[/youtube]
The clip shows what appears to be a group of West African troops playing with a chimpanzee. One soldier hands the chimp an AK-47 and it doesn't take long before everyone is ducking for cover as the monkey starts squeezing off rounds.
You can almost hear the chimp singing King Louie's signature Jungle Book song: What I desire is man's red fire, to make my dream come true.
Less than 48 hours after getting posted, the video had already been watched more than 1.7 million times. The video's header says the clip is part of 20th Century Fox Research Library's "Primate Behavior Reference" collection, provided by a West African soldier who shot the footage in 2009.
Hard to say if that's true or it's just a well-done hoax, but the clip itself links directly to Fox's YouTube channel for its soon-to –be released Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Fox Research Library is legit at any rate, but a curator there said she had her doubts about the clip itself.
"It seems suspect to me," she said, "I know it did not come from our department."
