APING AROUND

In Rise of the POA, Jamie Cakes' character Will Rodman was supposed to die.

Above, the original script details Rodman's demise.

The director and the studio decided at the last minute to save Franco's character.

The Playlist reports:

Fox’s president of post-production, Ted Gagliano, revealed that Will Rodman, the human lead of the film, as played by James Franco, was only saved from death by reshoots that took place only a month before the film hit theaters.

Gagliano explained that initially, director Rupert Wyatt and the scriptwriters planned for Rodman to die at the conclusion of the film’s final setpiece, but was reprieved at the last minute, with Franco and Andy Serkis being called back for reshoots over the Fourth of July weekend. Given the heavy visual effects elements, this added fresh headaches for a film that was already on a tight schedule: the movie was set to open at Thanksgiving, but was moved to August less than six months before the fact.

Indeed, the draft of the script we have, by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, dated January 2010, confirms that Will died saving Caesar’s life in the final forest showdown...

...[Fox] decided they’d rather keep their star alive , to keep a human lead about for future films.