20th Century Fox has released the first official photo from Rise of the Apes, which arrives in theaters nationwide on November 23. Click on this photo below, which features James Franco as scientist Will Rodman, to access our new gallery.

James Franco as Will Rodman in Rise of the Planet of the ApesConsidering that the main character is a motion-capture character in this film, we asked {23} if he believes that casting Andy Serkis was pivotal to making the movie. Well it would be made differently I think. I think we put a lot on him and he pulled it off. With someone else we would have had to do it in a slightly different way where the focus wouldn't have been on Caesar. Of course {24} is the human protagonist and Caesar is the an

Rise of the Apes is a completely new take on one of 20th Century Fox's most beloved and successful franchises. Oscar-winning visual effects house Weta Digital - employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for Avatar - will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors.

Rise of the Apes is an origin story in the truest sense of the term. Set in present day San Francisco, the film is a reality-based cautionary tale, a science fiction/science fact blend, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.