9. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes – Dr. Rodman Meant To Die In Caesar’s Arms
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes turned out far better than what everyone expect. A good portion of this credit can be attributed to the on-screen relationship between Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco) and Caesar (Andy Serkis). Whilst their final bittersweet good bye at the end was a nice touch, it was originally going to end on a far more depressing note.
Rather than exchanging a tear-jerking farewell, Rodman ends up taking a stray bullet for Caesar before dying in his beloved chimp friend’s arms. This original ending was actually filmed and intended to be used right up until the studio changed their minds at the last minute. With the intention of setting up a multi-film cash cow, the studio quickly ordered a new ending to be shot so that Rodman ends up surviving long enough to be in the sequel.
With the benefit of hindsight, the studio probably shouldn’t have bothered wasting money on this new ending as Franco didn’t end up coming back for the sequel anyway and Rodman ended up being shuffled off this mortal coil unceremoniously off-screen.
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