The fall season is about to spring upon us, and a few people will be highlighted.

My money is on Denzel Washington, who has two big hits coming to bookend the season.

Denzel stars in Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven,” opening the Toronto Film Festival on September 8th, and then opening in theatres everywhere on September 23rd.

Washington heads up an all star cast that includes Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Haley Bennett, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Luke Grimes. The buzz is very strong from early screenings. While some remakes like “Ben Hur” have collapsed at the box office, “M7” looks like a winner.

But wait– there’s more for Denzel. His film adaptation of August Wilson’s “Fences” comes in December. Washington directs himself and Viola Davis in the main roles, with Russell Hornsby. Denzel already knows his way around “Fences,” having staged it himself on Broadway with Viola, who won a Tony Award for Best Actress. “Fences” the movie is an Oscar certainty.

Remember– Viola Davis first came to attention on film when she played the lead character’s drug addicted mother in “Antwone Fisher,” which Washington also directed.

One irony of the Oscar season– Nate Parker, who wrote, directed and stars in “The Birth of a Nation,” is also a Washington graduate. He starred in Denzel’s “The Great Debaters” nine years ago. If the movie can overcome its current problems and head to awards, Washington can also take pride in that accomplishment.

I guess give James Franco an E for effort or a P for persistence. Despite making a series of movies as a director or producer that have all been flops, he’s going to direct again.

I’m told Franco is casting for a film called “High School Lover,” which he will co-direct with Jerell Rosales. It’s about a young girl who has an affair with an older man. He will play the girl’s father. The girl will be played by Paula Singer.

The bizarre part of this is that as a director Franco has not been a success. He has four movies listed with boxofficemojo.com. Their total box office take is $105,438. And that excludes some that simply never registered as releases including his adaption of William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury.” There is no record that film was ever released or earned any money.

There are also a bunch of films that he was responsible for producing or instigating, all flops including “Palo Alto,” “Maladies,” and “The Adderall Diaries.” He appeared as an actor in a Wim Wenders movie that made eight thousand dollars, and a film called “Yosemite” based on his own short stories that took in just over thirteen thousand dollars.

Still, Franco — nominated for an Oscar in “127 Hours,” has some things to look forward to–an HBO series with Maggie Gyllenhaal called “The Deuce,” and a big studio feature called “Why Him?” with Bryan Cranston that sounds like the 4th installment of “Meet the Parents.”

But “High School Lover” already could join that long list of indie projects no one will see, and upon which good money may be lost. No one says no to stars when they want to make their own movies. It’s impressive that the money is always there.

Weekend box office: as predicted “Ben Hur” tanked. The total was $11.4 million, less than the lowest prediction. That’s a washout for Paramount. “Ben Hur” cost about $150 million. Maybe there will be foreign ticket sales. One can only hope.

“War Dogs” came in with a very sour $14.3 million.

“Suicide Squad” was number 1 again. “Sausage Party” was a very un Kosher $15.3 million, up to total $65 mil.

Summer 2016 cannot end fast enough for the studios.

Keep refreshing…