Should James Franco Get Top Billing in Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Since the first trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes debuted online three months ago one thing about the film stood out. Not that apes can apparently defeat an army of riot police and helicopters by merely jumping around, but that James Franco was tasked as the film's lead. "We call it the cure for Alzheimer's," he intones with a super-serious acting voice. Sounds good, believable scientist! Of course, maybe that's the trick of Rise of the Planet of the Apes; Franco is but merely impeccably tailored set dressing hiding the real star of the show: Andy Serkis.

Twentieth Century Fox has released a four-minute sequence (!) from the Rupert Wyatt-directed film, showcasing what happens when Ceasar (motion captured by Serkis) sees Franco's Alzheimer's stricken father get yelled at by an irate neighbor. As Serkis says in the clip introduction, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes is considered to be the first live-action film to star -- and be told from the point of view of -- a sentient animal. [...] Another historic accomplishment for the picture was its filming of visual effects and performance capture work on practical locations outside the soundstage. Which allowed me, as Ceasar, to interact as never before with the other actors."

To be fair, Apes isn't being sold on Franco alone -- the apes are obviously the prominent draw -- but wouldn't it make sense to marginalize him in the subsequent trailers even further, especially since he can't even seem to be bothered with the film anyway?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters in three weeks, so there's still some time to tweak the ad campaign more toward Serkis's Ceasar. Watch the lengthy monkey clip below.

[via Yahoo!]