Judy Greer is set to reunite with her 13 Going On 30 co-star Andy Serkis as the new female lead in Matt Reeve‘s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But it’s not the type of female lead you may be thinking. While Keri Russell has landed the female human lead role, Greer will play the female ape lead.

Vulture reports that in addition to providing the voice for the Cornelia, she will also do the motion capture performances. Greer isn’t known for her motion capture work, but she has plenty of experience in the voice over department, her most notable work can be seen on the hit FX animated comedy Archer, which has just been extended for a fifth season. According to the report it was Serkis who convinced Greer auction for the part.

Director Peter Jackson revolutionized fantasy cinema with his epic adaptation of J. R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy, a monumental task, in spite of the author’s insistence that it could never be filmed. Given the phenomenal success with which Jackson pulled that off, how well would he tackle Tolkien’s earlier saga of Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit? San Diego Comic-Con Hall H fans found out earlier today with the panel for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Moderator Chris Hardwick(The Nerdist podcast) kicked off the Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures panel with a surprise, by pulling open curtains across the back of the hall to unveil projection screens double standard size, larger than I’d ever seen in Hall H history. Over these screens they displayed a collage of images from the film, which gave fans a hint to the epic scale of the panel to follow. Then, they screened a behind-the-scenes reel of footage documenting the exhaustive 266-day production shoot, including some of the amazing epic sets and characters of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

Twentieth Century Fox is busy putting together the pieces for a sequel to last summer’s blockbuster prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

It’s being reported that Fox has found a new writer, bringing in Scott Z. Burns to work on the project. Burns’ previous works include The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!, and Contagion.

Released last August, Rise of the Planet of the Apes overcame months of lackluster buzz to become one of the year’s unexpected blockbusters. It was the first truly great film in the Apes franchise since 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and it benefited strongly from the central performance by Andy Serkis as the intelligent ape Caesar and the revolutionary motion-capture CGI used to bring the character to life. Although the actor’s performance was overlooked at Oscar time (as many great performances tend to be) the film’s impact on audiences and critics around the world was undeniable.

Rise‘s $468 million worldwide gross all but guaranteed additional sequels and in November we reported that Serkis had signed on to reprise the role of Caesar in a future return to the Planet of the Apes for a seven-figure salary. Director Rupert Wyatt was also set to return as his original contract for Rise contained an option for a sequel, with Rise screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver writing the script for the next Apes movie.

The digital movie rental of the day over at Amazon today is Rise of the Planet of the Apes for only $.99.

This deal is valid through today, Tuesday, April 3, 2012, until 11:59pm PST. Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Instant Video on demand service, you’ll have access to the movie for 48 hours. If you’re interested in purchasing the digital version, the cost is $14.99.

Also, if you’d like to own a physical copy of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Edition is available for $19.99 while the DVD is $15.49. The Blu-ray edition is part of Amazon’s “Buy This DVD and Watch it Instantly” program “” you get the film as a FREE digital rental you can watch immediately when your purchase the physical copy.