2 For Franco, Can Stop! Won't Stop! (Silly Diddy Dance Ensues)

Franco may be the funniest guy who isn't exactly a comedy star, which makes him even funnier. He's also the coolest dude on the block when he feels like it.

And it seems now he's got some things in his pipeline ready to roll with.
But wait! There's more!

First up, Ricky Stanicky. The story, which aims to be R-rated, is described as an ensemble comedy in the vein of "The Hangover," and begins when three teens 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).

Next, Plant Of the Apes: Rise of the Apes. Franco reportedly beat out (from the PR quote making the rounds) "Hollywood's young elite actors for the coveted role". And then earlier news broke, Toby Maguire was one of those contenders. Haha, my turn for the star spot...sucka. Filmonic broke the news to me today with this gem:

According to HitFix sources, when Maguire came back to the table with script notes for the studio, the conversations abruptly stopped, and Fox moved quickly to close a deal with Franco, another of the final contenders for the lead role.

Oh word. Via Variety, the origin story, Apes is set in present day San Francisco and deals with the aftermath of man's experiments with genetic engineering that lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Franco will play a driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes. Visual effects house WETA Digital -- which will employ some of the groundbreaking technologies developed for "Avatar" -- will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors. Plant Of the Apes: Rise of the Apes, starts lensing July 5, and will bow June 24, 2011.

Franco, coming off a nice comedic cameo with Mila Kunis in Date Night and a stint on General Hospital, has the Universal comedy Your Highness next up with Natalie Portman and others, followed by the Julia Roberts romantic drama Eat Pray Love. Not to mention, Oscar winner Danny Boyle's 127 Hours coming up. This busy man, grabs the highest projects and keeps rollin' with more, ontop of attending major universities like Colombia and NYU and a Yale PHD program.

He can't be stopped, won't be stopped. Uht uh... (Silly Diddy dance ensues).

Munki Out.