Apes gets some fresh blood, Ruben Fleischer visits Mike White's Woods, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· The forthcoming Rise of the Apes has supplemented its James Franco-led cast with John Lithgow and Freida Pinto. The latter will play a primatologist opposite Franco's own scientist, and Lithgow will play -- and this is just terrible -- "Franco's Alzheimer's-stricken father." For whom I presume Franco is trying to develop some cure when everything goes haywire, but still. From a drunk dad in Leap Year to an incapacitated dad in this... Where's Dexter when you need it? [THR]
· Columbia has anointed its Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer as the man to oversee Babe in the Woods, from Mike White's previously noted script about a female freshman at Yale who is pursued by the New Jersey mob. This calls for an Emma Stone reteaming, right? It's also reported that Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less is expected to go to Columbia as well, FWIW. [Deadline]
· Daniel Radcliffe is said to be attached to a new adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, the Erich Maria Remarque novel about a young German soldier on the front lines in France during WWI. (The 1930 adaptation won the year's Best Picture Oscar.) The catch: It'll shoot in spring 2012, so, you know, don't get too excited yet. There's a loooong time for Kenny Wormald to sneak in there, is all I'm saying. [Variety]
· No, fanboys, Neill Blomkamp is not directing The Hobbit. At this rate nobody is directing The Hobbit. [Vulture]
· Also from the department of Mm-Hmm Rumor Control, director Mark Waters (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) and Jim Carrey are the latest names to surface in connection with Fox's adaptation of Mr. Popper's Penguins. Because if there's anything that's hot right now, it's broad comic adaptations of literary classics starring Jim Carrey. Whatever -- it's their money. [LAT]