Foolish humans. Or should we say, foolish James Franco. Turns out the recent Yale grad is the reason those lovable apes got together and overran our planet, at least according to the latest trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Franco plays a scientist whose intentions are pure enough - he's created a drug that allows the brain to repair itself. He even came up with a catchy, original name for it: the cure. Problem is "the cure" turns its original test subject, a chimp named Caesar (brought to life by Andy Serkis) hyperintelligent. So intelligent he realizes there are better things out there than just being a lab rat for ambitious humans.
The chimps look frighteningly real; we dare you not to get a little freaked out by Caesar's extremely human facial expressions. And while we don't get a lot of screen time with Franco, he's surprisingly believable as a young scientist out for glory.
Ready for your world to be taken over by primates?
He was born Andy Serkis on April 20, 1964, in Ruislip Manor, West London, England. He has three sisters and a brother. His father, an ethnic Armenian, named Serkissian, was a Medical Doctor working abroad, in Iraq, and the Serkis family spent a lot of time traveling around the Middle East. For the first ten years of his life Andy Serkis used to go backwards and forwards between Baghdad and London. His mother was busy working as a special education teacher of handicapped children, so Andy and his four siblings were raised with au pairs in the house. Young Andy Serkis wanted to be an artist; he was fond of painting and drawing, and visualized himself working behind the scenes in productions. He attended St. Benedict's School, a Roman Catholic School for boys at the Benedictine Abbey in London. Serkis studied visual arts at Lancaster University in the north-west of England. There he became involved in mechanical aspects of the theatre and did stage design and set building for theatrical productions. Then Serkis was asked to play a role in a student production, and made his stage debut in Barrie Keefe's play 'Gotcha'; thereafter he switched from stage design to acting, which was a real calling that transformed his life.
He appeared in the 2005 movie A Sound of Thunder as the technician Payne. He also appeared as the patrol officer in "Derailed" (A 2005 movie by Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston). He played the male lead in Kenneth Branagh's film of As You Like It. He also appeared as Dr Junju, alongside Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin, in The Last King of Scotland, and as Muddy Waters in the 2008 film Chess.
Oyelowo has been confirmed to play heroic civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Lee Daniels' upcoming film titled Selma. He will star in the upcoming scifi flick Rise of the Apes.
If "born to the theater" has meaning in determining a person's life path, then John Lithgow is a prime example of this truth. Son of a retired actress and a father who was both a theatrical producer and director, he moved frequently as a child while his father founded and managed local and college theaters and Shakespeare festivals throughout the midwest of the United States. Not until he was 16, and his father became head of the McCarter Theater in Princeton New Jersey, did the family settle down. But for John, the theater was still not a career. He won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he finally caught the acting bug (as well as found a wife). Harvard was followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Returning from London, his rigorous dramatic training stood him in good stead, and a distinguished career on Broadway gave him one Tony award for "The Changing Room", a second nomination in 1985 for "Requiem for a Heavyweight", and a third in 1988 for "M. Butterfly".
Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning actor, first coming to attention in the early 1970s with performances in numerous television films. His first big break was as "Dr. Hannibal Lecter (/Lecktor)" in Manhunter (1986). The film was not overly successful at the box office, although Cox's career prospects and popularity continued to develop. Throughout the 1990s, he appeared in nearly 20 films and television shows, as well as making numerous TV guest appearances.
Tom Felton has been acting since he was 8 years old at the suggestion of an actress friend of his family who recognized Felton's theatrical qualities. Felton met with an agent, and two weeks later, after auditioning with over 400 other children, he landed an international commercial campaign and went abroad to work.
A talented singer, he started singing in a church choir at the age of 7 and has been a member of four choirs at school. He declined an offer to join the Guildford Cathedral Choir. He is a keen sportsman enjoying football (soccer), ice skating, roller blading, basketball, cricket, swimming, and tennis.
Freida Pinto traversed the modeling circuit in Mumbai [represented by Elite Model Management India] for two years before gaining her big break when director Danny Boyle picked her out in the audition process to play the female lead, Latika, for his project Slumdog Millionaire (2008). In a promo interview, Boyle likened spotting her to his discovery of Kelly Macdonald for Trainspotting.
Surprisingly, Freida, who studied at Mumbai's St. Xaviers College, only began taking acting classes [she has done amateur theatre before] after completing her debut film - when she attended a three-month workshop by Barry John, the veteran theatre guru.
Between 2006-07, she anchored 'Full Circle', a travel show which was telecast on Zee International Asia Pacific. She went on assignments to Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Fiji among other countries.
He is best known for his role as Dave Groves in Invasion,[1] as Bert "Sock" Wysocki in Reaper and as Dale in the comedy-horror film Tucker & Dale vs Evil directed by Eli Craig, where he performed alongside Alan Tudyk.[4] He played the lead character in the 2010 Fox comedy series Sons of Tucson, but the show was cancelled after 4 episodes (the remaining 9 episodes that were shot aired that summer). He also played Jimmy Mortimor Farrell on YTV's Breaker High, alongside Ryan Gosling airing from 1997 to 1998. Was in the CBS comedy Mad Love as Larry Munsch, which premiered in February 2011, but was cancelled May 2011.
Hewlett got his first computer in his mid-teens and became a self-described "computer nerd". While attending high school in Toronto he launched his acting career, starring in student films by Vincenzo Natali.[4] He dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue careers in acting and computing.
David Hewlett has appeared in many low-budget horror movies, such as The Darkside and the minor cult favourites Scanners II: The New Order and Pin. He also guest starred in several television series. In 1996, he landed one of his better-known roles, as Grant Jansky on Traders. In 1997, Hewlett worked again with Natali, starring in the critically acclaimed thriller Cube as Worth the architect, a role that saw the rise of his stardom due to the commercial success of the low budget Canadian film. David Hewlett in the conference room at Bridge Studios, Vancouver, during a break in filming Stargate Atlantis episode 5.18 "Identity".
Rupert Wyatt is the co-founder of Picture Farm, the award winning London & New York based production collective which includes film makers Adrian Sturges and Ben Freedman, Damian Lewis and Gareth Lewis, and Marc Singer. In its 8 year history Picture Farm has produced short films, documentaries, and features including: Dark Days (2000), Hotel Infinity (2004), Out There (2006) The Baker (2007). and most recently The Escapist (2008).
Wyatt studied Film in Paris and while at University started writing for producers Claudie Ossard and Jean-Pierre Ramsay. This was followed by 5 years of writing and developing features in New York for companies Shooting Gallery, Miramax and Radical Media.
