James Franco will press pause on his “weed comedy” career temporarily while he plays the lead in Fox’s new “Planet of the Apes” prequel.

In “Rise of the Apes”, the “Pineapple Express” star will play ”a scientist who has been working on a cure for Alzheimer’s that is being tested on apes. The test subject named Caesar starts to evolve rapidly, and the scientist takes him home to live with him and protects him from cruel doctors”, says Heat Vision.

The Rupert Wyatt-directed film will, unlike the original “Apes” films, use computer technology to craft it’s monkey co-stars, as opposed to forcing underpaid actors to put on claustrophobic furry suits.

Franco was also announced this week as the star of “Ricky Stanicky”, a comedy about “three teens [who] pull a prank and burn down a house in their neighborhood. They create a fake person to take the blame — Ricky Stanicky did it! Twenty years later, we see that the three guys have been using this alibi to get out of every uncomfortable situation in life. When their wives force them to set up a meeting with Stanicky, they hire an actor (Franco)”.