Franco's Character almost Died in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Rise of the Planet of the Apes turned out to be the surprise hit of the summer, blowing everyones expectations away, making over $400 million dollars world wide, and turning Rupert Wyatt into an A-list director. There's already been talk of a sequel, but nothing has been officially greenlit yet. 

In a report over the weekend it was revealed that filmmakers originally wanted to kill off James Franco's character in the film. Fox’s president of post-production Ted Gagliano said that, "Franco flew from North Carolina to California over July 4th weekend to shoot an alternative goodbye with the ape Caesar (Andy Serkis). “We shot for three hours and (Franco) was back on the plane,” Gagliano recalled, adding that this change led to a challenging final weeks of what was originally a 41 week post schedule that involved extensive visual effects work.... we thought James Franco's character should die (in Apes), so we are going to sell (the alternative clip) down the road.”

So basically Franco's character was saved by those re-shoots that took place right before the movie was released. I'm actually glad that they didn't end up killing Franco's character, I don't think it would have worked so well with the story, or the movie had been received as well as it was. I also really liked how the movie actually ended. 

What are your thoughts on Franco's character? Do you like the original ending or do you think he should have died? I guess we'll find out what ending is better when the Blu-ray is released.