After this coming week, and several bad weeks (save for “Wonder Woman”) maybe Hollywood will be saved after all. Matt Reeves’ “War For The Planet of the Apes” will be a monster hit for 20th Century Fox. (The reviews are embargoed until Monday June 26th at 6 :00 am PT.   The film opens July 14^th.) 

At the first advance small screening for some crew and press, director/co-writer director and co-writer Reeves told the small group of crew and press that he just finished the film “a couple of days ago.” 

Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees and a revered animal advocate, saw the film in an unfinished version.  “She loved the movie, and I met her, just the most amazing person. She had her chimp doll, which I learned she carries everywhere, with her.  She won’t go to a movie that uses any animal in a cruel situation, so she loved this, since it’s all Weta [visual effects company] created.”

I asked him that the film seems to reflect exactly what’s going on today.

“We (Matt along with Mark Bomback) started writing this three years ago.   I wanted to make sure this is Caesar’s movie.  You see these two tribes and they’re both squatting on the same land, and the question is are they going to be able to co-exist or is it going to turn to violence? But it’s not Planet of the Humans it’s Planet of the Apes.  It’s a war movie, and we wanted it to root in stuff that feels real and to reflect human nature.

“The weird thing is that as we were starting to shoot this movie, there were all these events that were weirdly resonating and I was so like, ‘this is so odd.’  We didn’t set out to do all this timely stuff but it all sort of aligned, as it got closer.  So people thought we were writing about this situation and that. I had to tell people that, it took three years to make this movie. So in our exploration to make a war movie, there are some elements that seem to have relevance, which is cool.

“The leg of the story is about cementing Caesar’s position as the seminal figure of all ape history.  We were trying to make a biblical epic.  We watched “Ben Hur” and “Ten Commandments.”  All very mythic kind of ideas.  So this weird resonance of timeliness comes with the idea that these are mythic human stories that have resonance in the world as it is now.”

Regarding Woody Harrelson’s ruthless Colonel character, I mentioned to me it’s a cross between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. 

Reeves replied, “Woody plays a ‘Kurtzian’ type, referencing Marlon Brando’s infamous Colonel Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now.”

The domestic/ international junket is in London because Woody is shooting the Hans Solo movie there.

P.S. Andy Serkis is just wonderful. They are pushing him for Best Actor. Woody, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer are all great.  

It’s easy to say this or that movie is the worst you’ve ever seen. But Sony’s “Rough Night,” which opens Friday, has really earned that distinction at least for 2017. The director, Lucia Aniello, has misunderstood “The Hangover” movies, tried to add a screeching version of “Bridesmaids,” and come up with a fresh torture. The whole thing is a trainwreck, but unfortunately it’s not “Trainwreck.”

Scarlett Johansson’s reps must seriously be questioned about why they let her participate in this drivel. Kate McKinnon– who for me can do no wrong– speaks with a bad Australian accent throughout the film. Again, was there no advice given these women? Jillian Bell plays a cut rate combo of Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson, beautiful Zoe Kravitz is belittled, Ilona Glazer is just bad.

These women play unlikely friends who take Johansson’s character to a Miami mansion for a bachelorette weekend. Scarlett is also running for State Senate at home. So she’s got two stock plots running at once, neither believable.

And then there are the “guest stars”: Demi Moore and Ty Burrell of “Modern Family.” Their cliche, stock characters of an oversexed couple who live next door not only are unfunny, they are also shot as badly as they could be. Moore, one of my favorite people, looks ghastly. I was relieved to see her shining on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show when I got home from the screening. She should sue the director of photography.

Of course, maybe I’m making too much of how truly awful this slab of glob is. But get this– the ladies hire a stripper who comes to the house and is killed by them moments later for no reason. It’s an accident. Bell jumps him, he hits his head on the marble floor, and expires. Unrepentant, the women then attempt a “Weekend at Bernie’s” scenario. Instead of calling the police, they try to hide him. He’s strapped into a “Fifty Shades” type sex chair with a plastic penis placed on his nose. Oh it’s hilarious.

The women’s lack of reasoning can be attributed to them ‘doing cocaine.’ Yes, these are adults, they don’t look like drug addicts, it’s 2017 and they are not young enough to be this stupid. Yet there they are– and I love how they kept saying ‘cocaine’– never, ever coke because that would violate a trademark. LOL. Later, they do meth — yes, meth. It’s mindboggling. And Kravitz’s character is forced to participate in a threesome with Moore and Burrell, taking one for the group.

The screenplay, if you could call it that, is by someone named Paul Downs, who wrote it with Aniello. Downs also plays Johansson’s fiancee, and his acting skills are somewhere below Lifetime Movie Channel. Again, why this Oscar nominee and Tony winner’s people agreed to this crap is beyond my understanding. But Downs has stuffed his screenplay with so many coarse and vulgar references that they backfire almost immediately. You just want all these people to shut up as quickly as possible.

Funny side note: while all the exteriors were shot in Miami, the actual house that was used was a modern mansion in Southampton, New York. The movie is so cheap that you never see the characters leave the house, or in Miami. I don’t know why Miami had anything do with it, unless it was a tax break. The IRS should look into that.

Hollywood may never forget the weekend of June 16, 2017. Tinseltown box office, already down, is heading to three sizable flops all opening at the same. Major stars and directors are involved, too.

I guess the biggest problem out there is “The Book of Henry,” from “Jurassic World” directed Colin Trevorrow. There have been few screenings and no reviews. (UPDATE Really bad ones are trickling in.) Star Naomi Watts did her publicity in May and won’t appear at Wednesday’s L.A. Film Festival premiere. (She’s filming in Prague.) “Room” prodigy Jacob Tremblay co-stars. “Henry” is from Focus Features’ old regime, so if it fails it won’t matter that much for them. They have a lot of hits coming this fall. But Trevorrow is scheduled to direct “Star Wars 9.”

Second on the list is “All Eyez on Me,” Lions Gate’s biography of rapper Tupac Shakur. This movie is also largely unscreened for critics. I’m told reviewers are embargoed from publishing their pieces until Saturday, so as not to warn away Tupac fans from opening night. “It’s like a Lifetime movie,” one observer told me. John Singleton quit this movie early on, if you remember, because of too much interference. Now music video director Benny Boom is making his feature debut.

Third is expected to be Scarlett Johansson and Kate McKinnon in “Rough Night,” from Columbia Pictures. There’s an embargo until Wednesday noon for reviews, but the word is out. Things don’t look good.

If all three fail bigly– which seems to be the case– the path will be clear for two other new releases with mediocre reviews— “Cars 3” and “47 Meters Down.”

Will moviegoers just return again to “Wonder Woman”? Or will all these poor offerings further add to the deterioration of theater-going? It’s getting easier and easier to stay home and watch movies. Very disappointing.