Spoiler alert: James Franco's character wasn't always supposed to survive the Rise of the Planet of the Apes chaos. According to an early script, Franco's Will Rodman was supposed to die in the arms of his primate pal Caesar after being hit with a bullet during the dramatic forest showdown. At the last minute, the filmmakers decided to change the ending and flew the actor cross-country to film an alternative goodbye scene with Caesar (Andy Serkis). The casualty-free climax made the final cut, Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed over $400 million worldwide and Will Rodman lives to film a potential sequel. [THR]
Eight years after Aron Ralston cut off his own arm to free himself from a boulder in Utah's Little Blue John Canyon, a 64-year-old North Carolina man faced a similar survival nightmare while hiking in the same Utah desert earlier this month. Even though Amos Wayne Richards had seen 127 Hours -- the Danny Boyle film starring James Franco that chronicled Ralston's hiking disaster -- he still set out for a solo hike without telling anyone of his plans. Richards broke a leg, dislocated his shoulder and was forced to survive four days on rain water and a pair of protein bars before attracting the attention of a helicopter pilot overhead with the flash on his camera. Lesson learned this time? [EW via AP]
Do you have a James Franco needlepoint wall hanging? A James Franco blood splatter portrait? Absolutely anything that could be classified as an art project created in the likeness of Hollywood's favorite multi-tasker and least favorite Academy Award co-host? If so, your muse may be interested in the very artwork he inspired, at least according to this touching fan-Franco interaction straight from the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Gentleman-thug enforcer Martin Donovan has been sent to bring loner James Franco to his boss, slick gangster Josh Lucas, in NYU professor Jay Anania's indie drama Shadows & Lies. But Franco's eating a sandwich, and you don't want to bother Franco when he's eating a sandwich. "Are you muscling me?" asks Franco's William Vincent. "You'd know if I was," replies Donovan. Watch Movieline's exclusive clip after the jump.
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Disney's fantasy prequel pic Oz, the Great and Powerful has set its final witch, Glinda: Michelle Williams, who will team up with James Franco's snake oil salesman/"Wizard" to vie against evil sisters Rachel Weisz (the Wicked Witch of the East) and Mila Kunis (The Wicked Witch of the West) for control of Oz. Word on the street has Franco's salesman as a ladykiller who breezes into Oz and finds himself in the middle of a magical power struggle with romantic plot threads. In other words: Ding-Dong, the Wizard is a pimp. [Variety]
An artist struggles with her latest work, haunted by paranoid visions to the point that she questions her sanity. Is it just us, or does Winona Ryder's next film, The Stare, sound a little -- okay, a lot -- like her last film, Black Swan? Fine. Black Swan didn't also have James Franco portraying some sort of performer. That doesn't sound familiar, either.
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The folks at WETA Digital took to the internet Wednesday to unveil an in-depth first look at this August's franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a live-stream chat, confirming Charlton Heston's worst fears: Hordes of damn, dirty (and pretty photorealistic) CG apes will definitely be invading the streets of San Francisco this summer. The first Rise of the Planet of the Apes trailer will premiere on Apple/iTunes Thursday, no doubt featuring more of the impressive visual effects shared in the preview; hit the jump for the nine most compelling insights, revelations, and concept art peeks revealed by the WETA effects team and star Andy Serkis.
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Movieline didn't set out to discuss the finer points of creature genitalia at length with award-winning director David Gordon Green, but standing opposite the filmmaker and a plate of cookies at the tail end of his Your Highness press day, all bets were off. Possessed of a laser focus and a restless energy, Green has carved an eclectic career path for himself ranging from sensitive dramas (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to raunchy comedy (HBO's Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express). Featuring pedophile gags, stoner jokes, ridiculous medieval accents and the aforementioned Minotaur schlong, Your Highness -- co-written by friend and star Danny McBride -- is decidedly not one of those highbrow affairs.
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Another day, another Natalie Portman authenticity scandal. But this one isn't about how much dancing the Oscar-winner did or didn't do in Black Swan; it's of even more significance, to a certain segment of the movie-going audience: Did Portman use a butt double in her upcoming medieval comedy, Your Highness?
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I've always enjoyed the antics of James Franco. He has shown himself to be interesting and committed to going about his work in different ways, which is all you can really ask for when you're in the profession I'm in. There are only so many studio press releases and "It's an honor just to be here" company lines a person can listen to in a given day without getting bored, and James Franco has never been boring. And to the extent his efforts are calculated to look as much as possible as "doing things his way," at least he was doing them. As Paul Brittain said while parodying him on SNL, "I like doing things!" And that's great! It's cute! At least, it was cute until he decided that he wanted to host the Oscars and waste three and a half hours of my life.
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Actor/writer/director and recent NYU film grad James Franco stopped by Movieline's Sundance HQ at the Levi's Dockers House in Park City for a lengthy chat with Elvis Mitchell on the smaller passion projects that drive his inner artiste, including an update on when his SNL documentary, Saturday Night, will finally hit theaters. Get your James Franco quick fix after the jump!
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The sold-out Tribeca Film Festival premiere of James Franco's documentary Saturday Night boasted at least two inconsistencies -- it screened on a Sunday afternoon in midtown Manhattan, some 70 blocks north of the fest's namesake neighborhood. But at least the film itself was unambiguous and even-handed. Mostly.
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