In an interview with
Playboy, James Franco - who plays Will Rodman in the upcoming
Rise Of Planet Of The Apes - talks in detail about the possible reactions to the film, saying that the critics are likely going to 'kill this movie'. He also confirms that he hasn't seen the full film yet, and says that the final product will likely have more action than what was originally in the screenplay.
Will they “get you” for your new movie , a prequel to the five-movie series that began in 1968 with Planet of the Apes?
Here’s my guess: Critics will be out to kill this movie and blame for it just because they are out to kill me. Last year people were pretty nice. This is the year when people are going to have fun going after me. I don’t feel the same way about Rise of the Planet of the Apes as I do about 127 Hours or Milk. It was a different kind of acting.
Was the movie fun to make?
Because I’m in the digital and media department at Rhode Island School of Design, it was fascinating for me to get to work with Weta Digital, the company that also did The Lord of the Rings and Avatar. I also got to work with Andy Serkis, who plays the ape Caesar and did a lot of motion capture. I never thought of this movie as an example of my creativity. I was an actor for hire. But people still have it out for me, so they’re going to go after the movie.
In Rise of the Planet of the Apes you play a scientist who, in the name of Alzheimer’s research, genetically alters the ape that eventually leads a simian revolution against mankind. How is your movie different from the 2001 Tim Burton–directed Planet of the Apes, let alone the original five Apes movies, which have a huge cult following?
They haven’t shown me the movie yet, so I don’t know what the result is. I did reshoots, and it sounds to me the final movie will be different from the screenplay, which had a lot of character development. The movie seems to be more action now. I went and did my job, and I’m supposed to be a scientist. I feel pretty confident that I did that.
Audiences liked the apes talking in the original Planet of the Apes movies, so how do you think the more realistic but silent apes will go over?
What strikes me, looking back at those movies now, is that they had really good actors, including Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall, in these crazy masks, and they were having pretty interesting philosophical conversations about society, the ethics of interacting with other societies and mysterious cultures. It’s fun to see those kinds of conversations and issues. In the later movies it becomes about race and social upheaval, so the movies were kind of comments on current issues. The older movies can get away with that with their cult value. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is not a bunch of apes sitting around having philosophical discussions.
To read the rest of the interview, click the link below.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes hits theaters August 5th, later this summer!