Movies
Will James Franco Return For ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’?
In an interview with MTV, actor James Franco dropped the bomb that he may not join the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to the Apes prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in which Franco played the scientist that gives Caesar his mental strength.
“I was going to be a small part of the next one,” he reveals in talking about returning to his role of Will Rodman. “There was a moment when Rupert Wyatt was going to direct the second one. A lot of the human characters that were in the first movie were dead in the sequel that Rupert was going to direct. But there was one scene, between Caesar and my character, maybe even just like on a video that was left behind, but then a lot of things happened, like [former Fox co-chairman] Tom Rothman who was a big part of the first movie, left. Now Rupert’s not a part of it so I don’t know. My guess is I won’t be in it. Nobody’s talked to me since Rupert left.”
Let Me In and Cloverfield‘s Matt Reeves has since come aboard to direct, and Andy Serkis is the only name to be attached to star. There’s no need to be alarmed because it’s just too soon to say Franco won’t return, which is why it’s a bit odd that he’d even imply that’s the case. Shooting is set to begin in the first quarter of 2013 with a release set for May 23, 2014.
Dawn continues the story of how ultra-intelligent simian Caesar (Andy Serkis) presides over the fall of human civilization. After the apes break out of their facility, a virus breaks out that causes the collapse of human society. The new project is taking the story to the next level, with the apes on the path to emerge as society’s new rulers.
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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