JAMES FRANCO is more than a little hairy – he’s gone APE and with reverse-evolution unleashed, the whole damn world’s going to hell!
The Spider-Man star and General Hospital headliner is going to test his humanity as he inks deal to topline in Planet of the Apes prequel.
Or as simian buffs say Conquest of the Planet of the Apes – the penultimate chapter in the first Monkey World franchise. Battle for the Planet of the Apes finished the series off in 1973.
In the prequel, Franco plays a scientist who has been working on a cure for Alzheimer’s that is being tested on apes, natch.
The test subject, Caesar, starts to evolve rapidly, and the scientist takes him home to live with him and protects him from cruel doctors.
The Hollywood Reporter reports the films "is designed to show the modern-day event that set in motion the eventual dominance of apes over humans" as seen in the 1960s and ’70s ape classics.
While the script is being tweaked, it remains unclear how much will deal with the metaphoric ape revolution.
The apes will not be actors wearing John Chambers’ facial appliances as in the original 1968 thriller but rendered digitally by the same SFX technology used in Avatar.
One thing is certain, CHARLTON HESTON, won’t be around to save the world from "those damn dirty apes!"
Unless he’s digitally resurrected from beyond the grave.
