A fair number of big news items have popped up today. The Hobbit is being pushed back by five months. Tim Curry will be in The Clone Wars. Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe have some interesting post-Potter films lined up. But there's only one thing that made me squeal at my computer. And that's that Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was my reaction.

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We already knew that James Franco probably wouldn't be facing off against any damn dirty apes in Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And now we know who'll be fulfilling the role of ostensible-lead-because-they're-human-but-really-we-all-know-Andy-Serkis-is-the-star-here: Zero Dark Thirty's Jason Clarke.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes might find itself James Franco-less. In an interview with MTV, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes star has said that he might not be in the movie's sequel at all, or if he is, it might be in a very small role. I'm OK with that. I don't think anyone came out of the (surprisingly good) Rise of the Planet of the Apes, saying "Man, that James Franco did a good job." I mean, he did. I think he did. I don't really remember. The majority of my post-Rise thoughts were more along the lines of "Andy Serkis, YOU ARE A GIFT!"

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Fresh off his gig as second-unit director for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, motion-capture actor Andy Serkis is ready for the big time. He'll be directing a retelling of the George Orwell classic, Animal Farm. But will he play one of the animals as well? 

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Those who saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes know that the new take on the film series left the door wide open for sequels. And I'll bet the $453 million worldwide gross didn't hurt either. The film's motion capture star, Andy Serkis, has just been officially confirmed for the sequel, and it seems the studio is readying a big Oscar push for the actor as well. 

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Andy Serkis has had quite the prolific career as a motion-capture actor. Perhaps most famous for playing Gollum in Lord of the Rings (as well as the upcoming The Hobbit(es)), he's also taken turns as Kong in King Kong, and, most recently, the ape Ceasar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Now, Serkis is speaking out about the lack of respect his profession is paid in the awards circuit, saying that actors who perform under motion-capture are just as deserving of Academy Awards as their live-action counterparts.

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Planet of the Cats This parody of the trailer for The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, showing what happens when cats from the Internet stop getting polite and start getting real, is in French, but you'll easily get the idea. But we should all be really concerned. I don't think we've ever followed a cat picture with a cat video, and that's the first sign of a takeover. (UFUNK)

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At Buzzfeed.

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20th Century Fox is returning to the well of Planet of the Apes movies with Rise of the Apes, a sort of reboot/sort of prequel. After all, we've already heard the story of how apes came to rule humanity (the basic territory of Rise of the Apes) in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (no, it doesn't really make sense), so it must be a reboot. But we've already had a reboot, thanks, Tim Burton, that we guess this could be a prequel for? I'm honestly not sure if it could be, because at the end of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes I stood up in the theatre and begged somebody to please explain what the hell had just happened. No one answered. So it turns out that in August we can all go see, not The Rise of the Apes, but, no foolin', The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

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