The Hollywood trades are reporting that Frieda Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), James Franco (Milk, Pineapple Express), and John Lithgow (Third Rock) will all star in Fox’s Rise of the Apes, a prequel to the Planet of the Apes series of science fiction films.

Rupert Wyatt is directed the primate prequel that focuses on Franco as a scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s and testing his intelligence-boosting nostrums on apes.  Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital will provide the special effects for the film that is slated to begin shooting this summer for a June 24th, 2011 theatrical debut (see “POTA Prequel in 2011”).