Director: Rupert Wyatt
Stars: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto (more)
Release Date: August 5, 2011
Synopsis: In present day San Francisco, a scientist (James Franco) looks for a cure for Alzheimer's disease by experimenting on a chimpanzee named Caesar. The development of animal intelligence brings about a war for supremacy between humans and apes.
Why We're Excited: Really, honestly, for us it's the reunion of director Rupert Wyatt and Brian Cox, who starred in Wyatt's excellent debut, The Escapist, that has us the most excited. And of course there's Andy Serkis's motion-capture work as the alpha ape leader, Caesar. For James Franco, who has the longest To Do List in Hollywood, this is the kind of serious-minded entertainment that's perfectly fits his actorly qualities. (That could be construed as a polite way of saying he's best suited for thinky drama.) He's also wonderfully malleable in the right director's hands, though with Serkis, Cox, and pretty young things Freida Pinto and Tom Felton in the mix, we're realizing this is the first big-time leading man challenge for Franco, and, yes, we hope he's more engaging than he was as Oscar co-host.