FOX PLOT SYNOPSIS

RISE OF THE APES (tentative title) is an origin story in the truest sense of the term. Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

SLASH FILM NEWS

Tom Felton, the young actor best known as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, has been cast in The Escapist helmer Rupert Wyatt’s Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes.Felton will play the son of Brian Cox’s character, who is “the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there.”

Felton will join James Franco (Spider-Man/Milk) who is set to play the lead, “a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes.” Other co-stars include John Lithgow, who plays Franco’s father, also a scientist, Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), who plays a primatologist who helps Franco, Brian Coxwill play “the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there,” and Andy Serkis, who will play Caesar, the chimp who leads the simian revolt. David Oyelowo (The Last King of Scotland, A Sound of Thunder, Derailed) has been offered the role of Steve Jacobs, the board of directors who announces phase 2, clinical trials.