Slumdog Millionaire beauty Freida Pinto and Dexter serial killer alumni John Lithgow are set to star in Fox’s Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes.
According to THR’s Heat Vision, Lithgow will play the Alzheimer’s stricken father of James Franco’s scientist character. The cure Franco is working on to cure his father’s disease is being tested on apes. When one ape named Caesar rapidly evolves, Franco takes him home to “keep him from cruel doctors.”
Pinto will play a primatologist who will speculatively be called upon by Franco to assist with Caesar’s unusual evolution.
Shooting on Rise of the Apes commences this summer in British Columbia under the direction of Rupert Wyatt. The film will open on June 24, 2011.
