1st image of James Franco in Rise of the Apes

20th Century Fox has released our first real look at James Franco in Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Apes. An all new chapter described as a Planet of the Apes prequel, the film will be released in theaters on November 23rd, 2011.  Wyatt's diretorial career is pretty thin, with The Escapist being his only real highlight, but he's managed to snag an impressive cast featuring Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, and Andy Serkis doing the motion-capture thing we've come to expect from him. Serkis will be playing Caesar, the world's first super intelligent chimp...unless you count BJ and the Bear.  The image comes courtesy of JoBlo, so we gotta thank those guys for the heads up!

What does the image tell us? Not a lot, and I expect Franco will look much more excited when he hosts the Academy Awards this Sunday!