More: Monkey Business

Tim Burton's 2001 attempt to relaunch the Planet of the Apes franchise may have made pots of cash but it was a flop with both critics and ape fans, however there is a much more interesting sounding Apes movie in development that it is hoped will get things going again. Entitled Caesar: Rise of the Apes and starring Andy Serkis as Caesar the movie is a prequel to the apes saga.

The plot of this new film will be a scientist (James Franco) working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease and in doing so he experiments on the DNA of a chimp named Caesar which starts a chain of events that will see the rise of the apes. The film will be directed by Rupert Wyatt and is due to hit cinemas during summer 2011; the tentative release date is June 24th.

"This movie looks very interesting  - its a prequel to Planet of the Apes and tells how modern day experiments on apes gives them intelligence and provokes an Ape war.  Can we survive the Ape the strongest animal on the planet given that they can tear us apart." Script co-writer Rick Jaffa.

The film is hoping to please the large existing fan base - originally based on a novel by Pierre Boulle the 1968 movie spawned four sequels, a live action TV series, an animated TV series and scores of comic books and graphic novels. It became a true cultural phenomenon.