Andy Serkis Will Play Caesar in Rise of the Apes

Even though we’ve all known for a while that the Planet of the Apes sequel, rise of the Apes, will have CG apes, there has to be someone inside a motion capture suit playing the apes.  Now comes word through a 20th Century Fox tweet that Andy Serkis will be heard and not seen as the “lead ape” in the film.

Serkis has a long history with WETA Digital, the company that will bring the apes in Rise of the Apes to life.  Besides starring as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he’s already done time as a big ape for them in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Serkis will be playing the role of Caesar, an ape who is part of an experiment to cure Alzheimer’s. The experiment goes awry when Caesar begins to evolve rapidly and eventually Caesar leads the simian population into revolt against their human oppressors.

Serkis joins James Franco as the scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure, Freida Pinto as a primotologist, and John Lithgow as Franco’s Alzheimer affected father.   Rupert Wyatt is directing from a script by Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa. Shooting begins shortly in British Columbia. Rise of the Apes is scheduled for release June 24, 2011.