James Franco is reportedly in talks to headline Twentieth Century Fox’s Planet Of The Apes reboot, Rise Of The Apes. Franco will play a scientist in contemporary San Francisco who gets caught between humanity and a batch of genetically-altered intelligent apes. Fox has recently fast-tracked the film, which will be directed by Rupert Wyatt, for a June 24, 2011 release. Cameras are scheduled to begin rolling July 5th.
Rather than use humans in makeup, this new version will utilize apes created through computer imagery and animated via motion capture performance. Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital will be providing the work.
Fox has been making a priority of restarting their Planet Of The Apes franchise for some time now. But instead of making a direct remake of the classic 1968 film – we saw how well that went for Tim Burton in 2001 – the studio has been keen on starting off with an “origin story” of sorts, showing exactly how apes came to rule over humans, but without the time travel and pre-destination elements of the franchise’s Escape From The Planet Of The Apes and Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. After many attempts, it seems as if studio brass are happy with the script from Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa to finally pull the trigger.
Via Deadline.
