As we've been noting this week, Hollywood seems to have discovered the Prequel, i.e., movies whose endings you already know. This is different from the Sequel, which is the second movie in the sequence, or the Quel, which is the original movie.

Well, if you wondered how apes came to run Earth, all your questions will be answered by an June 2011 "Planet of the Apes" movie, "Rise of the Apes." No more actors in monkey suits; they'll all be computer generated. The movie will show how man tinkered with genetic engineering, and created smart apes, and this led to "a war for supremacy."

I'm sure humans come off horribly, and apes are noble and wise who can carry on intelligent conversations but still hoot and fling poo when they're losing an argument. But there has to be a nuclear war in there somewhere, right? Something that destroys human civilization but still leaves the Statue of Liberty intact so it can make an ironic point. I'll admit that was a great moment in the first movie, and depressed me terribly as a kid, as did the sequel, which just blew everything up.

I still prefer the musical version. From Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Z!