James Franco’s character was originally supposed to die at the end of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes , the effects team has revealed.
Fox’s president of post production Ted Gagliano told the Visual Effects Society’s annual get-together that Franco had even filmed a death scene for his character Will.
According to Gagliano, the filmmakers changed their minds at the eleventh hour and Franco flew from North Carolina to California over the weekend of 4 July to shoot an alternative goodbye with Andy Serkis' ape Caesar.
“We shot for three hours and [ Franco ] was back on the plane,” he said.
Gagliano revealed the change at a seminar on the way Hollywood is expecting post-production teams to turn work around in increasingly short time scales.
He also told the audience that X-Men: First Class was supposed to finish principal photography in December 2010 but filming continued until April 2011, leaving just a three-week post schedule to deliver the final effects for a 2 June opening.
