James Franco goes 'Apes' over new movie

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, opening today, Franco brings the popular chimp-dominated franchise into modern focus.
Franco, 33, calls the live-action prequel, in which he plays scientist Will Rodman, "a new version of Apes for our day." Gone are the spaceships and tortured humans (the last Apes film was Tim Burton's 2001 take). In their place are white lab coats, systematic animal testing and a race to cure Alzheimer's disease, personalized by Rodman's afflicted father.
Cue scientific tinkering gone horribly wrong.The plot centers on Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimp Rodman has raised since birth whose intelligence has been supersized as a side effect of Rodman's manufactured cure. Now smart enough to question his own condition, Caesar begins a tactical revolt among his ape brethren.
How plausible is it? The Apes story line hits on the debate behind the ethics of genetic engineering, and Franco says he has been contacted by groups decrying outdated testing on apes in the U.S."To ease human suffering is a noble goal, and I am glad we have medical experimentation that has taken us out of the dark ages," says Franco, who supports alternative, less harmful methods of animal testing. "I hope that kind of development continues."
Franco says he signed on to Apes because of the cutting-edge computer technology that layered Caesar's aped exterior atop actor Andy Serkis'.