According to Variety, John Lithgow and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto are both close to signing on to join James Franco in next year’s Rise Of The Apes—all part of a carefully considered plan by 20th Century Fox to make us pay attention to its Planet Of The Apes reboot and learn about the dangers of creating super-intelligent primates before it’s too late. Pinto will play a primatologist, ostensibly a sexy one, whose research becomes sexily entangled with Franco’s own scientific monkeyshines, which will lead to the inevitable war between man and ape. Lithgow is in talks to play Franco’s father, where he will presumably put all the monkey-man diplomacy he learned from Harry And The Hendersons to good use as the trio attempts to save Earth from being overrun by photorealistic apes—even though we already know that they will fail. Rise Of The Apes begins filming next month; references to "Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off" begin right now.
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