James Franco’s First Look In ‘Rise Of The Apes’, Cast In ‘Oz The Great & Powerful’

How a single human can go to college, make viral videos, sign tons of movies, host the Oscars among other things at the same time is baffling. In another stroke in James Franco’s career, he now has another big budget project lined up for him.

But first, JoBlo released an image of James Franco from his ‘other’ big budget prequel ‘Rise of the Apes’. The movie is set for a November release and actually sounds like something that might just make the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise watchable again. Franco plays a scientist here and actually pulls off a non-nerdy scientist look here. Let’s wait until we see more of the film.

Next, Deadline reports that James Franco has officially been cast as Oz in Sam Raim’s remake of “The Wizard of Oz’ called ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’. Johnny Depp had previously been rumored for the part but the deal didn’t pan out, and looks like James Franco stepped up on the opportunity of playing an iconic character. It will be interesting to see him handle such a role and expand his range. He will play “a young illusionist with a grandiose attitude who is forced to flee a traveling circus. His hot air balloon is swept up by a tornado to the land of Oz, which is run by two magical wicked witches.”

What do you think?