John Lithgow and Freida Pinto have signed on to co-star in Rupert Wyatt's upcoming Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes.  The movie stars James Franco as a scientist who's been working on a cure for Alzheimer's and testing it on apes.  The potential cure causes the test subject "Caesar"  to evolve rapidly and Franco must protect him from the doctors who want to harm the animal.  Little does Franco know that trying to find a cure of Alzheimer's and protecting a defenseless ape will lead to the destruction of human civilization.

According to Heat Vision,  "Lithgow will play Franco’s Alzheimer’s-stricken father. Pinto is the movie’s female lead, a primatologist."  Filming begins this summer in British Columbia.  Rise of the Apes is slated to hit theaters on June 24, 2011.