Great Ape

Versatile actor John Lithgow and Freida Pinto have joined Rupert Wyatt's Planet of the Apes prequel, called (at least for now) Rise Of The Apes says The Hollywood Reporter

The film revolves around a scientist (James Franco) dealing with the aftermath of genetic experiments on apes and monkeys in San Francisco. Turns out the apes are starting to behave more and more human-like and start a revolution.

Lithgow will play Franco's on screen father while Pinto is signed on signed as primatologist Caroline.

Don Cheadle has yet to be officially cast in the pic

Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa (Eye for an Eye, The Relic) wrote the screenplay

The production team have has hired Weta Digital to create fully CG apes.

Lithgow has done it all From his twisted turns in thrillers like Blow Out and Cliffhanger: He starred in the best segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie; dramas like the original Footloose and Terms of Endearment: Cult classics like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and of course comedy on TV's "3rd Rock from the Sun"

With casting like this I am a bit less worried about this one--just a bit..

The pic start shooting on the 5th of July. The release date has been set as June 24th, 2011.