Well gosh darn it — you want to think a movie is going to be terrible when you hear that said movie will be a Planet of the Apes prequel and that it will use CGI effects instead of the better-known costume and prosthetic effects. But despite all of the alarms going off in our heads about this project, every new casting announcement that comes along seems to add another level of intrigue.

It’s now being reported by The Wrap that the great Brian Cox will be joining the cast of Rise of the Apes, the 20th Century Fox prequel that will take place long before the events seen in Planet of the Apes. Cox will be playing a role he can play to absolute perfection: the villain. He would be playing the owner of a multitude of primates used for testing in a lab that he tends to treat very poorly. This spells bad things for Mr. Cox.

The movie will star James Franco as a scientist who uses the primates to test possible cures for Alzheimer’s Disease. Lord of the Rings and King Kong star Andy Serkis will once again become ape playing Caesar, one of the test subjects who rapidly evolves to a point where Franco’s character takes him away to protect him…most likely from people like the one that Cox will be playing. Rounding out the cast so far is Slumdog Millionaire‘s Freida Pinto in the female lead as a primatologist assisting in the research, and John Lithgow as Franco’s father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) will direct the movie from a script written by Amanda Silver (The Hand That Rocked the Cradle) and Rick Jaffa (The Relic).

Rise of the Apes will be released June 24, 2011.