I doubt it. I've never seen Rich Handley's books at Barnes & Noble before. Maybe at comic book shops.

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The teaser trailer for "War" looks to have been classified (runs a minute and a half) so it's release could be imminent.

What'd ya say, Dec. 11 for the "Walking Dead" winter finale before running with "Rogue One"? Everyone get your Woody Harrelson pullover masks ready!

heroichollywood.com/war-planet-apes-trailer-classified

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Fox just presented footage from some of it's 2017 wares at Lincoln Center, including "War 4 the POTA". It's apparently the same stuff shown at NY Comic-Con (the teaser trailer and an unfinished scene). Joblo.com sez : "I think everyone will be happy. Looks bigger and better than ever". And Daily Dead added: "Even unfinished, the footage is absolutely riveting".

There's been a deluge of teasers released for the big 2017 movies ("Spiderman", probably POTA's biggest competitor in July, hits tonight on Jimmy Kimmel) so it remains to be seen when the "War" teaser will put it's foot in the door. But I reckon soon.

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Or so director Matt Reeves has hinted. With websites chiming in that their set reports will also hit tomorrow, it sounds like a good day to go Ape.

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Hello! Is this on? The "War 4 the POTA" trailer is here. Good thing this isn't an Apes fan place.

collider.com/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-trailer

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If it's any consolation, the blu-ray will probably hit around Christmas; a few months shy of POTA 's 50^th anniversary, bitch!

If you're worried it will be all action, check out what the filmmakers have said.

I get the feeling the apes are thrust into the winter setting. They don't know what winter is. That might be what creates a desire in them 4 clothes.

Next trailer: don't hold your breath. But I'm satisfied. The movie itself will be here before you know it.

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The filmmakers say they considered clothing the apes but decided to wait. I think they snow would be a good reason for the apes to adopt clothes (just as it did primitive humans (Ice Age, etc.).

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WOW!

It looks like the mute little girl seen in the "War" trailer is named Nova, and according to "Entertainment Weekly" it's the SAME Nova played by Linda Harrison in the original POTA. Which makes no sense from a timeline perspective. Considering that EW has never shown the Nu Apes respect (no cover or anything) they can just get screwed. Maybe she uses the name Nova (as Caesar shares the name with an old POTA character) but the Nu Apes storyline is centuries before Heston arrives (if he arrives on this timeline at all). So what are they talking about? EW gets all the scoops but I guess they don't have to bother thinking things through.

collider.com/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-nova/

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No, finding her in a Nova sounds like a joke. The scene where they find her has been shown at NY Comic-Con and a description is available.

It's possible they won't mention her name. Sometimes they just use the names for the hell of it. I remember in POTA2001 Ari's friend was called Nova and Thade's dad was called Zauis and the names were never brought up unless you looked at the credits.

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"If we lose this battle that's the end of the world as we know it! We will have proved ourselves inferior, weak. And all those groveling cowards who are alive when the battle is over will be the weakest of all. This will be the end of human civilization and the world will belong to a planet of apes!" - - - a 20^th Century prophet

2016 was the Chinese Year of the Monkey but 2017 is Fox's Year of the Ape, so we've had our first taste of the latest chapter in the revitalized "Planet of the Apes" franchise. "War For the POTA" is set to arrive July 14. The filmmakers stopped by New York Comic-Con on 10/6/16. More recently, the first trailer was dropped and Fox allowed websites to post their on-set reports (from January 2016). The end result is a lot of information out there of what to expect in 6 months. As I did for past movies, I wanted to find the best stuff and put it together in one place.

This isn't meant to spoil the movie. This is 100% what the filmmakers felt was OK to share about the movie so we can feel confident and get excited for it (or not). They are basically putting their cards on the table. Will it be all action or have a stupid story? This is what they want to achieve (doesn't mean they will but it's the goal). The filmmakers presumably want to keep the integrity of the film (not to be confused with the marketing, which sometimes does go overboard). They don't want to spoil their movie either.

I am a big spoiler head. The internet is like a candy store for me. But still, I learn, what, 1% of what a movie has to offer (if it's a good one)? Even if I know basically what happens, there's still the script, the acting, the music, the look. There's a lot to take in during a movie and I see this as prolonging the enjoyment, sipping as opposed to taking it all in one gulp.

BUT I know there are those who want to be Sgt. Schultzes and "know noth-ing!". So I have put this into two parts. "Story" outlines what happens in the movie and includes the (possible) spoilers. "Production" is the more general stuff about the shooting with no story elements. But those who don't even want to know there's snow in the movie (oops!) should leave now. See you in July. For the rest, I'll see you below…

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First of all, it's the same folks who gave us "Dawn"; the same director and writers, mostly the same cast (ape-wise), prob the same sensibility. If you liked "Dawn" there's a good chance you'll like this. In fact, I have a feeling "Ape" fans will like this more. I loved "Dawn" but it was a tradish good guy/bad guy story. What I've always loved about POTA is it's more ambiguous tone; we like certain characters but no one is perfect. The filmmakers plan to put their hero through the mill and go to the dark side. It's the Caesar of "Rise" or maybe "Conquest" (or worse?). That's tough to do in this age of expensive blockbusters. We'll see what they achieve but points for trying.

Also of note is that "War" has had the most privilege of any "Ape" movie. It had a full three years from script to screen, more than any of the others ("Dawn" lost a year to a director change). It also (presumably) has the biggest budget, given the success of "Dawn" ($710 million worldwide) and a hope "Apes" can do better as more people get on board. Plus, Matt Reeves is only the second director to do two "Ape" movies. So if experience counts, he can bring that to "War" (though it didn't help J. Lee Thompson with "Battle" - - or maybe it did?). Any way you slice it, "War" has the most resources of any POTA ever. Though that's not to say they didn't struggle or were given a blank checkbook. To paraphrase the director, they will be working hard on the movie until it is ripped from their hands.

So what is all this time and effort going toward? That's why we're here, my beloved.

1.       STORY

a)       ACT ONE

"I believe we have the best opening of all the movies". - - - producer Dylan Clark

"War" picks up 2 years after "Dawn", with the promised conflict between Caesar's band and the human military. Things have not gone well and the apes have been forced out of their "Dawn" village and up into a cavey "hidden fortress" behind a waterfall ("Hidden Fortress" was the name of the film during production, which works both for the story and also a nod to Akira Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress" (1958), a big influence on the story for the original "Star Wars" movie).

Reeves: "It was raining so hard that our equipment almost got swept away. It was an insane experience. But it was quite beautiful and wonderful to capture on film…almost like those images from "Last of the Mohicans", there is an ape community behind the waterfall and that's how they've been able to hide all this time".

Reeves: "(Caesar has) taken on almost legendary status because - - somehow - - though the (human) army is armed with all kinds of weaponry from the armory, the apes of course only have scavenged weapons, they have weapons they've made - - yet they're surviving in the woods and part of that is because of Caesar's intelligent command. And (the humans) believe that if they could find him, the apes would fall".

Reeves: "As the film begins, we're in Muir Woods. We actually start the film from the human point-of-view and we're moving up the mountains through the woods looking for Caesar, who is rumored to be commanding the war from some hidden command center. And they spot an ape trench… and they basically set out a giant attack".

For those expecting or wanting a war movie, the opening is where to look. Dylan Clark: "I think the audience has been waiting for this kind of fight to happen but I also think they don't want to just see human army vs. ape army. You can't have an entire movie of that… Matt wanted to start in the geography that you understood where the ape habitat was and then lead the audience, through the character of Caesar, on this mythic journey. And each step along the way… are very different… What I love about the journey is that we're in the apes' point-of-view. We are experiencing this movie through Caesar – the narrative weight of this film is on his back".

This first act is basically the war that gives the film it's title. A battle that ends with a tragedy that turns the story. Andy Serkis: "(A) cataclysmic event happens very early on in our story, which sends (Caesar) in a direction that he's just not expecting; that is when it becomes very personal, a very personal tragedy that drives him to a place where he forgets himself and wants revenge and that becomes his pure, driving force. And that is an alien feeling to him and he struggles to fight and battle that for the whole journey".

(SPECULATION: What tragedy? No hint but I suspect he could lose his family. The son has been recast and as we'll see there's not much room for his family in this story. Plus it's a tragedy that carries believable weight. So that's my bet.)

In "Dawn", Caesar sought to live in peace with humans (having come from their world and seen the good as well as the bad) and catch the monkey wrench thrown into the works by his pal Koba (who only saw the bad side of humans). In this film the humans have pushed Caesar so far that he wonders if maybe Koba was right and the humans (as a whole) are impossible to get along with. Reeves: "Caesar will come to understand why Koba felt the way he did, and the question is whether he can overcome the darkness within him when Koba could not. The war in this movie is both within and out of Caesar".

The filmmakers loved Koba and the actor who played him (Toby Kebbell) and toyed with keeping him alive. Did he survive "Dawn"? No. But he's a presence in the film, maybe literally. Reeves: "Koba's presence is huge in the film. He really haunts Caesar… (Caesar) starts to lose his empathy for humans and in a way starts to become like Koba… and we have some presence of Koba actually in this film in many ways, like these turncoats and in glimpses of him that Caesar has". That comment suggests Koba might return as a ghost or an image Caesar has (What about the return of "Dawn" humans Jason Clarke and Keri Russell? Dylan Clark won't comment. Hmmm).

The "turncoats" of which he speaks are the apes who rallied around Koba in "Dawn". They didn't just come back and instead are working for the humans. Reeves: "They couldn't imagine that Caesar would ever allow them back into the fold. Just in order to survive, they're willing to prostrate themselves and it's a pretty cool part of the story". They are called the Kongs, as in Donkey Kong (or derogatorily, "Donkeys"). Hey, what's a war without traitors?

Act one sets up what is the main struggle of the film. Reeves: "(The) whole idea was how does what happened with Koba inform this and challenge Caesar and bring him to places he's never gone to… The war is this huge external conflict, but almost an even bigger internal conflict, the process he's going through that brings all kinds of discoveries that also, not only make the movie's canvas much bigger and grander and more epic, but there actually ends up being more emotion. There ends up being more humor. All these things, which are surprises in the story, Caesar is going on that journey…unlike anything that's happened in any of the other films so far. It's pretty exciting".

(CONT.)

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ACT TWO

"Some of it is very tender. Some of it is very emotional. Some of it is very wrenching. Some of it is incredibly funny, because the journey of the characters that he meets on this path toward the Colonel is the most unexpected group that joins (Caesar). There are discoveries that he makes and as he discovers them, it brings you new tones in the movie that we've never had yet… There's so much in this movie that we haven't shown you". - - - Matt Reeves

Lost in anger , what Reeves calls "a badass Clint Eastwood Caesar" feels ineffective as a leader and decides on a road trip of revenge to find the human commander behind the carnage: the Colonel (Woody Harrelson). Just as the humans think the apes would fold without Caesar, Caesar believes the war would end if he could finish the Colonel. His friends want to keep an eye on him, so he is joined by Maurice the orangutan, former nemesis Rocket, and bodyguard Luca (the loud-mouthed gorilla from "Dawn", who got his own action figure before NECA ended their Apes line).

MAURICE – The orangutan is played for the third time by Karin Konoval, who says, "With this film, his story is richer, deeper and fuller. You get to see much more of him on many levels, and in terms of interactions and choices he makes along the way". She calls Maurice Caesar's "conscience": "Whatever Caesar's journey is, Maurice is a part of that. He also has a very special journey of his own… it's another aspect of his character that gets explored in this new film and that is very beautiful".

ROCKET – Also returning for a third film is Terry Notary, the indispensable ape movement trainer and expert, whose Rocket gave Caesar a hurdle on his way to leadership in "Rise". They've since become close, especially now. Rocket's son was killed by Koba in "Dawn" and Notary says, "The space between the last film and this one you feel the friendship between Caesar and Rocket having grown through that experience, through that loss. That gives Rocket the maturity and ability to help Caesar in his own plight and to push him where he needs to go. It's a bit of a role reversal".

LUCA – When Jason Clarke/Malcolm first enters the ape village in "Dawn", a gorilla sounds off a warning. That's Luca. He's here for Caesar's protection. Whatever else "War" reveals about him remains to be seen, but these new movies have sorely needed a gorilla character since Buck in "Rise".

The quartet travel from San Francisco along the Pacific coast up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains looking for the Colonel's headquarters – all shot in Canada, of course (Tofino on Vancouver Island was used as the coastline). Along the way they meet up with a couple of interesting additions.

BAD APE – This character (played by comedic actor Steve Zahn) may be the surprise of the movie. He's a complete ape outsider, wasn't part of Caesar's community (doesn't even know sign language) and suggests what other apes may be out there on the planet. Reeves: "He's a really funny but heart-breaking character as Steve plays him. He refers to himself as Bad Ape because that's what his captors referred to him as".

As Zahn notes: "It's not really comedy. It's just a different speed to this really heavy, I mean, this (movie) gets DARK, this one. It gets really violent. Which is something interesting to me… That's what's so great about the script. It relies so much on what you bring to it… they don't hit you over the head with stuff". Zahn found an in with the character's enthusiasm: "it's like, "Oh, great!" No matter what's going on, he's like, "Oh, I'm just so glad to be around other apes!" He was off by himself in the mountains, you know? And they find him and that's a big deal because they really thought they were the only apes that survived… I escaped from the Portland Zoo when things went bad. And I learned to speak. They taught me how to speak, which is another big, huge thing… Caesar and him kind of have a comradery, we have experiences that are similar. And that's why they kind of bond. Even though they're very different".

Adds Notary: "He's a good element in this film for taking us in new directions and leading us off into this thing and lightening up a certain heaviness. Because it's a very dark, heavy movie and it needed this… The design that we've come up with for his character, I think, is wonderful and I think the fans are really going to love him". Reeves: "We found a photo on the internet that looked exactly like that ape and we wrote (the character) to that ape. Our voices (the writers) were that ape for a long time, which was a lot less funny. (Zahn) read with me over Skype. There was a very emotional scene where you find out his backstory, where he and Caesar are talking and he started doing the scene and I started crying over Skype".

Comments producer Dylan Clark: "I think we're going to find a much better back and forth balance between very impactful emotional drama and how it effects Caesar, but also give entertainment and lighter moments. There's levity…There are more reasons to smile and laugh than there were in prior movies… Steve Zahn's going to show up and give us a taste of the possibility and the question of what else might be out there".

To watch Zahn himself explain about the character: ign.com/videos/2016/12/10/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes-steve-zahn-introduces-his-character-bad-ape

NOVA (Amiah Miller) – They find an orphaned human girl (orphaned because, well, Caesar just killed her father; Serkis: "Caesar is an empathetic character, but really where we take him in this movie is where that bleeds away, where he loses that… It's the most emotionally draining part of his arc that I've played"). She happens to be mute, so her name is a nod to the most beloved mute human on the POTA (also, Bad Ape gives her the hood ornament from a Nova car). Despite Caesar's objection, Maurice insists on taking her along. The relationship between Maurice and Nova is of note and was inspired by the scene in "Dawn" between Maurice and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Reeves: "When we were setting out to write the new story, we knew we really wanted to tap into that vein because that was one of the really emotional and almost mystical places - - this connection between humans and apes that the films could capture".

Reeves calls her "the sign post" and says, "She's a critical part of the story. She's part of a giant mystery but she's part of the emotional core… As (Caesar is) driven to a darker and darker place, the presence of this little girl keeps that flicker of humanity somewhere alive in the back of his heart. And so she's a very, very important part of the story."

Reeves: "This very unlikely posse of apes sets up the river, toward the Sierras, to get the Colonel. Caesar has turned in a dark way. They think they've found where the human soldiers are supposed to be… as Caesar starts making that journey up the river, he starts finding these other clues that start to fill in a larger picture about the humans – not just about the humans but also about the apes. There's a big unfolding mystery that unravels… The movie starts as a war movie and it becomes a kind of Western and then it unfolds to a grand mystery and then it becomes a real battle of wills between Caesar and the Colonel".

ACT THREE

"There's a real sense of foreboding in this movie… There's a sense that this is the crux, this is the climactic moment". - - - Andy Serkis

It all comes to a head when Caesar and Co. track the Colonel to his mountain headquarters (shot on Mt. Seymour in British Columbia, standing in for the Sierra's Mt. Whitney). It's a former quarantine station (filmed at Tower Rock Armory) the soldiers have commandeered and is being patched up with ape slave labor (providing a nice mix of human and ape architecture; the apes use their patented "tree" designs). Reporters at the January 2016 set visit saw a scene being filmed where Caesar was on an X-shaped cross being interrogated. According to Dylan Clark, "We're not making the Bible story… it's not meant to be a cross, but if it's perceived as one, I think that might be an interesting conversation – however that's not the intent". (Not making the Bible story? See below)

As for the Colonel, Reeves calls him "a Kurtzian 'Apocalypse Now'-type character with great gravitas and intensity… The movie does have an 'Apocalypse Now' structure in a way in that Caesar is making his way up the river, so to speak, but in this case it's into the mountains and through the snow… And along the way he discovers more and more evidence of the Colonel's atrocities. And how extreme he is. And when he reaches the Colonel, he comes to understand that he is a colonel who is extreme because of the extreme circumstances the humans are in. He's become almost godlike to the humans". (Another famous ape story will also get an 'Apocalypse Now' makeover this year as "Kong: Skull Island" - - with Terry Notary in the title role - - is set during the Vietnam War).

Reeves: "This group that follows him, they are the Alpha Omega, which is actually a reference to 'Beneath'. But that's the beginning and the end, because this group believes that if they succeed then the humans will survive. If they fail, the humans end and the human race will vanish. It will become a planet of apes". It helps that the ALZ virus has reared it's head again with another surprise for the humans (regression?). Reeves: "The humans are in a very, very tragic situation and that's why they are fighting as brutally as they are. Because, wouldn't you?". The mix of "Alpha Omega" and the new, improved virus has led some to speculate that this is the birth of the mutants ( birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/12/16/are-we-getting-some-mutant-humans-on-the-planet-of-the-apes ). The soldiers, in good Vietnam movie fashion, have anti-ape slogans on their helmets like "Monkey Killer" and "Bedtime For Bonzo". The actors, including Woody, did their own camouflage makeup.

In the trailer, the Colonel looks at a picture of his son (a kind of parallel with Gary Oldman in "Dawn"). Reeves just calls that a piece of the puzzle. According to Reeves, the Colonel is "not a villain, but he's an extremely tortured, dark character and Woody was just incredible and it was great to see them (Woody and Andy) acting opposite each other. One of the things in a war film is that you have (the) spectacle of the battles but what matters is the drama at the forefront, the intimate battle of wills that exists between Caesar and the Colonel… it's the core of the movie… Woody reveals where the extremity in his actions come from - - as he reveals the justification behind all these chilling acts… nothing is a lie. You realize he's not crazy. It's just that the world has gone crazy, the world is extreme… One of the things that has gotten very important to us is the story becomes less interesting the moment you lose empathy… these are characters in the most extreme situation and they are pushed to do things in order to secure their own survival. And the things they do are questionable, but the reasons they end up doing them are relatable and understandable. So we don't try to have any character that you can just dismiss".

Serkis notes: "the third act of the movie or a large part of the movie takes place in a very inhospitable environment. There was a bleakness to it, but Matt really… I think we both sailed close to insanity. I feel I really sailed close to insanity in this film". Not unlike the legendary reports about the making of 'Apocalypse Now'. Adds Dylan Clark: "The film is about, "will Caesar regain his humanity and become the Caesar we know and love? Or will he not?" That exploration that Matt went on with Andy was bleak at times".

(SPOILER: The rest of this deals with the end of the movie; though the actual end of the movie hasn't been revealed, this might be too close for comfort for some. Be warned).

Perhaps the end of the movie can be summed up in one word: Moses. The creators of "Rise" saw Caesar as a Moses figure, though the director saw him more as Spartacus. But that was just a warm up to Reeves: "In "Rise", he comes from humble beginnings and he rises to being a revolutionary. In "Dawn" he's confronted with having to become a leader and trying to lead in difficult times. He tries to bridge the two populations to see if he can find peace and that failed. That thrusts you into a huge escalation, which is "War", but we didn't want it to be an escalation in action… We wanted it to be an escalation in terms of character dilemma. We wanted to take Caesar and really push him. We felt we wanted Caesar to become the ape Moses. We wanted him to become this giant, mythic figure and the tests he endures in this film are tests that secure his place as the key figure in ape history that will go down and be remembered forever. That's ambitious… it felt like the natural place to go and we're really excited about where we went".

(SPOILERx2: OK, now this REALLY touches on the ending. Look away! Turn back now!!! No, really!) Andy Serkis says that Caesar reconnects with the Colonel's slave apes and "by the end, he's able to redeem himself and lead the exodus of the apes to freedom once more. It's a fantastic journey. An amazing arc". Is that the end of the movie? I doubt it. We know the apes win, that's a given. But does Caesar die and we move into the future (a la the end of "Battle")? Or are we going to continue on with Caesar? Dunno. As we know, Moses never lived to enter the Promised Land (he caught God on a bad day). Yet Reeves doesn't sound like he's done with Caesar: "The trilogy I'd say is that this is a Caesar arc that is specifically in our minds how he becomes a mythic, giant character… But we don't see this story as ending". Dylan Clark adds: "We never set out to make a trilogy… Our hope is that we make a whole movie that works here, and that we can continue with these characters that we love". Are they talking about continuing POTA generally or Caesar's story specifically? I vote they end Caesar's story one way or another and then push forward a couple centuries with a new dynamic between human and ape. But who knows about the future?

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