James Franco in talks for Rise Of The Apes
Only yesterday, we reported that James Franco has signed for the title role in comedy 'Ricky Stanicky' and now he is reportedly in talks to star in Fox’s 'Rise Of The Apes'.
The studio has been plugging away at the Planet Of The Apes prequel concept for years, and finally seems ready to get one on the screen whether we want it or not.
Rupert Wyatt is directing Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa’s current draft of the script, which follows human scientists performing genetic experiments on apes in modern-day San Francisco. Naturally, things go badly wrong and agressive, intelligent simians are the result, which sparks a conflict between the two species. One that will eventually drive Charlton Heston to exclaim, “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
The story is designed to be show the modern-day event that set in motion the eventual dominance of apes over humans seen the classic 1960s and '70s movies. It is unclear how much of the movie will focus on the ape inciting an ape revolution, the apes will not be actors in costumes but rather rendered digitally to be photo-realistic by New Zealand-based WETA, employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for 'Avatar'.