PLANET OF THE APES prequel finds its star in James Franco

PLANET OF THE APES prequel finds its star in James Franco

May 24

Well this is unexpected. Here I was thinking that the Planet Of The Apes prequel would cast nobodies in its lead roles, being a modest sci-fi production, and treating itself as somewhat of a blank slate reboot-type project, but apparently I was wrong: James Franco has been cast in a leading role described as “a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes.”

I think James Franco’s a fine actor, and a dead ringer for James Dean to boot, so I’m glad to hear he’s up to something interesting these days. Plus he’ll get to ham it up opposite WETA’s digital simians, so that’ll be fun to watch.

20th Century Fox’s summary of the film reads thusly:

RISE OF THE APES (tentative title) is an origin story in the truest sense of the term. Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

Saying a film is a” reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction / science fact blend” is like saying a film is a “comedy in which funny things happen to comedians, designed to elicit laughter from an audience.” When will film studios figure out just what science-fiction is, and stop pretending shit like Transformers and GI Joes falls into that category? I’m especially galled by the “science fiction/science fact” bit: science fiction takes current scientific research and extrapolates it, so technically all sci-fi is “science fiction/science fact.” Idiots. Also, humans are apes, so the synopsis should really differentiate humans from non-human apes. Just sayin’.

Anyway, as previously reported, Rise Of The Apes rolls on the 5th of July 2010, with a 24th June 2011 release date in mind.