New TV Spots For 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'

The marketing machine keeps on chugging, this time a few new spots for the James Franco-starrer, and a cumbersome title to beat, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Brand appeal, neat action sequences, primate uprising and some impressive CGI apes including the way they captured the imagination and chilling looks of Andy Serkis as Caesar. Here are two new TV spots for Rise of the Planet of the Apes:

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First Glimpse of James Franco in 'Rise of the Apes'

I'm pretty sure James Franco has figured out a way to clone himself. Aside from the ridiculous amount of movie projects he's rumored to be attached to over the next couple of years (IMDB has the list at 8 upcoming films and counting), he's also hosting the Oscars this weekend—where he's also a nominee, for his leading role in 127 Hours—and working on a degree at Yale at the same time. Of the 4 films he has slated for release in 2011, Rise of the Apes is probably the most high-profile, and today we get our first look at it.

This actually is one role that's not played by James Franco... as far as we know.

This prequel to the Planet of the Apes franchise is "an origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy." We all know how that war ends up, but seeing how it comes about may be pretty fun. Aside from Franco, the film also stars Andy Serkis (of LOTR/Gollum infamy) as Caesar, the subject of Franco's character's experiments who gets the whole man-vs-apes ball rolling. The female lead is played by the lovely Freida Pinto, who of course got her start in Slumdog Millionaire.

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Fox Moves 'Caesar: Rise of the Apes' from Summer to Fall

Can't say I didn't see this coming.  We're merely two weeks into the new year, but the race to the summer of 2011 has already begun.  As posters, trailers, and official images of all this summer's tentpole films start to make their way onto the internet, there's one blockbuster noticeably missing.  And that would be 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes prequel Caesar: Rise of the Apes.  Seeing as how we're 5 months from the film's planned June release and we haven't gotten anything other than a few set photos, it's no surprise that the studio has decided to push the film from this summer back to November 23, 2011.

But it's not just the apes that are getting bumped by the studio, a handful of other Fox films are having their release dates changed as well.  Hit the jump to see who else is on the move.

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Tom Felton Will Witness the 'Rise of the Apes'

Tom Felton is gathering no moss, moving from one franchise to another one (potentially). The Harry Potter co-star has signed on to next summer's Rise of the Apes, the Planet of the Apes prequel/reboot I'm growing weary of detailing.

But let's run it down one more time because it is a tad involved if you don't know there were ever other Apes movies. In fact, there were five between 1968 and 1973, and Rise of the Apes is based on the fourth one, Conquest of..., which I've always held up as the best of the rest. In Rise, Felton will play the son of Brian Cox, who owns a scientific testing center where experiments on apes are conducted. In the update, researchers are trying to cure Alzheimer's through animal testing - so there's your obligatory social outcry statement in a movie tangentially about science - although it's not clear if Felton's on the right side of the debate. He's very good at oily villainy, but you can't do that forever, I suppose.

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Brian Cox for the Bad Guy in 'Rise of the Apes'

They're taking this Planet of the Apes reboot seriously over at Fox. Although the choice of Rupert Wyatt as the director seems like a shot out of nowhere, the cast has been uniformly strong and the idea to start essentially at the beginning - though in the middle of the original series - is a wise decision.

So joining James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, and John Lithgow is the great Brian Cox, who's so good at playing villains and gets to add one more to his con column with Rise of the Apes. That's all you need. Well, not exactly, but it's pretty groovy. You also need some bitchin' effects work since the movie won't employ cotumed actors to play the ape. That's where New Zealand's WETA comes in, and this is the first time the Ape franchise has chosen to go to computers to make the apes. They'll be photorealistic this time, or at least that's the goal.

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