Considering its pending release date shortly over a year from now, it’s a little surprising we haven’t heard more casting news on Fox’s upcoming “Rise of the Apes,” a reboot/prequel of “Planet of the Apes,” even considering that much of its cast will be made up of WETA-created digital simians. James Franco was announced in the lead role a month ago, but there’s been no movement since then. Or at least, there hadn’t been until yesterday.
Bloody Disgusting have information that suggests that offers have been made to Don Cheadle and “Slumdog Millionaire” star Freida Pinto to join Franco in the blockbuster. There’s no indication of what roles they would play; we can only hope that they’re more interesting than the best friend and love interest we assume they’re likely to be. The site emphasize that it’s only a rumor for the moment, and that nothing’s yet been signed, but we’ll see shortly.
As Steven Soderbergh once said, if you can put Don Cheadle in your movie, you should put Don Cheadle in your movie, and we’re always glad to see him working (even if he was uncharacteristically subdued for most of “Iron Man 2”). Pinto hasn’t been seen on screen since ‘Slumdog,’ but she’s got Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger,” Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” and Tarsem’s “Immortals” all on the way, so she’s building a decent career for herself. With a very promising cast, and a promising director in Rupert Wyatt (“The Escapist”), might this turn out to be a surprisingly good killer monkey movie?
