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James Franco Cast in Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Apes Prequel

by Alex Billington
May 20, 2010

Big casting news to report today that should make a few Planet of the Apes fans happy. Variety (and other trades sites like Deadline and Heat Vision) are reporting that James Franco has been cast as the lead in 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes being directed by British director Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist). Franco will play the role of a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes. Apparently Franco beat out a number of Hollywood's young elite actors for the coveted lead role. As far as we know, Franco is the first actor cast in this highly anticipated prequel.

Although script reviews have been out for a while now, we've learned a bit more about the story from a few different news articles. Franco's scientist character has been working on a cure for Alzheimer's that is being tested on apes. The test subject, named Caesar, starts to evolve rapidly, and the scientist takes him home to live with him and protects him from cruel doctors. The movie will be set in contemporary San Francisco and leads into the inevitable war between apes and humans. Fox has already set a June 24th 2011 release date and Weta Digital will be animating all of the apes in the movie. Shooting starts this summer in Vancouver.

Explore tags: Casting, Movie News, Opinions

america

balls
blasphemer

why is this film being done???? whats the point??? nothing new here at all...same ole' sh*t....
Cracky

Franco is such a great actor. I support anything he does.
Spider94

ill support this movie,except a bunch of dumb cgi chimps
bubba b

Ive said it once and ill say it again, Franco is horrible
http://www.facebook.com/ jeffrey

Okay that storyline sucks!!! SERIOUSLY WTF!!!!!
Cody w

Yay now the integrity of one of my all time favorite sagas gets to be ruined....fuck you hollywood...fuck you.
radbots

Who did he beat out? I'm curious to see who else was considered for the role.
esophus

project x part duex...i cant express enough how pissed i am with thw casting and storyline!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/ Dr. Zaius

Why did they have to change the storyline?!!!!!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/ TAYLOR

The canon of thie franchise is rock solid and should not have been fucked with.
http://www.facebook.com/ Zira

This is exactly where Tim Burton fucked up!!!! It appears the same mistake is about to be made!!
Sylvain (from Paris)

The best "Planet of the Apes" (La Planète des Singes) is forever the original novel by French writer Pierre Boulle. None of the movie adaptations have developed the story has told by Pierre Boulle. It's pity. And the next movie will also come with a different story than the one imagined by Pierre Boulle. Everybody there, if you've not done it yet, please read it. It's so captivating you won't leave your book until you've finished it. Only a few hours to read. In the book you'll know how and when the apes started to talk and act as humans, as imagined by its author Pierre Boulle.
Fred Schepsi

"As far as we know, Franco is the first actor cast in this highly anticipated prequel." Really? Highly anticipated? Besides us nerds who have heard about it, most of which seem to think it would be better to let the Apes alone, who even knows this is coming out? Is Billy the farmer in Iowa sitting next to a calendar crossing off the days until this movie comes out even though he has NO IDEA that this movie is being made at all? This would seem to be the opposite of a "highly anticipated prequel."
http://movies.iconocritic.com peloquin

Bunch of haters always here...I think this sounds like a great project and with Franco involved I'm even more excited. It's the perfect franchise for an origin story.