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After moving back, ‘Rise of the Apes’ now moves up

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The apes are on the move again.

Fox said Tuesday afternoon that it’s moving ‘Rise of the Apes’ from its previously planned November slot to Aug. 5.

The release date for Rupert Wyatt’s ‘Planet of the Apes’ reboot, which stars James Franco as a scientist tinkering with genetic engineering, has been shifted before: Two months ago, the studio pushed the film from June to Thanksgiving, citing a need for increased postproduction time.

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A Fox spokesman said that the latest shift came about because executives viewed special effects and rough footage from the film and felt the movie was best suited for the summer. The movie will now come out only a few months after Franco’s next film, the adventure comedy ‘Your Highness,’ which hits theaters April 8. The Twitter-obsessed actor has mostly been laying low after his critically panned Oscar-hosting stint.

While June is traditionally more of a spot for studios’ splashiest summer blockbusters, August has in recent years been a home for modestly budgeted action films. Last August saw the release of Sylvester Stallone’s ‘The Expendables’; this year, among male-targeted films ‘Apes’ will share the month with Lionsgate’s reboot of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and Craig Gillespie’s horror-comedy remake ‘Fright Night.’

Fox also said it would move ‘The Sitter,’ a comedy starring Jonah Hill as an unlikely babysitter, from August to Dec. 9. That makes the film a rare R-rated comedy to be released during the holiday season.

--Amy Kaufman

twitter.com/AmyKInLA

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