James Franco Discusses the Possible Critical Response to Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Posted 07.13.11 by Ryan
2010 was a good year for James Franco. He received critical accolades for his work as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in the indie docudrama Howl, as well as an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of mountain climber Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. Franco also had supporting roles in the Eat, Pray, Love and Date Night.
2011 has been less kind. Earlier in the year, Franco received bad reviews for his co-hosting of the Oscars ceremony and, months later, his fantasy/comedy Your Highness got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office. With Rise of the Planet of the Apes still scheduled to open in August, which response will follow? According to a Playboy interview with the actor, Franco doesn't think critics are done beating him up yet this year.
Here’s my guess [about the response to Rise of the Planet of the Apes]: Critics will be out to kill this movie and blame me for it just because they are out to kill me. Last year people were pretty nice. This is the year when people are going to have fun going after me. I don’t feel the same way about Rise of the Planet of the Apes as I do about 127 Hours or Milk. It was a different kind of acting.
While Franco admitted he hadn't seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes yet, he did say that he thought working on the Planet of the Apes prequel was "fascinating", mostly because it helped him in studies and his never-ending quest to get every degree imaginable.
They haven’t shown me the movie yet, so I don’t know what the result is. I did reshoots, and it sounds to me the final movie will be different from the screenplay, which had a lot of character development. The movie seems to be more action now. I went and did my job, and I’m supposed to be a scientist. I feel pretty confident that I did that.
Because I’m in the digital and media department at Rhode Island School of Design, it was fascinating for me to get to work with Weta Digital, the company that also did The Lord of the Rings and Avatar. I also got to work with Andy Serkis, who plays the ape Caesar and did a lot of motion capture. I never thought of this movie as an example of my creativity. I was an actor for hire. But people still have it out for me, so they’re going to go after the movie.
We'll find out if Franco is right on August 5, when Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens in theaters.