Planet Of The Apes!

I can't believe this was from an actual movie.

So, a new Planet Of The Apes movie comes out this week, only this time the film is rooted in a tad more "realism" than its predecessors.  At least the ones I've seen, anyway.  The older movies take place on some distant planet full of apes (or a distant future in which apes rule Earth), while this movie seems to feature genetically enhanced apes that escape their confines and wreck havoc on modern America.  In the preview, it suggests that thousands of apes take to the streets, scaling buildings, over-running highways, jumping on helicopters...mass hysteria.  But this begs the question:

Where the hell did all these apes come from?  There have to be, what, a few hundred apes housed in US zoos?  Perhaps we're running secret tests on a couple of hundred more?  I know you will never encounter one wandering around the North American woods unless one escaped from the aforementioned containment units.  I proposed this question to a friend and he suggested that maybe these smart apes flew here from central Africa (where many gorillas live) in those little World War One propeller planes.  Then I pictured an entire air fleet of said planes all manned by furry, angry gorillas slapping the dashboards in between funny gorilla hoots.  I thought watching this for two hours would probably be more entertaining than the actual movie.  Either way, I do hope to find out how America becomes overrun by hordes of intelligent apes.

Regardless of the above, how absurd is it that there is even a popular movie franchise called "Planet of the Apes."  I know we're all used to it because its been around so long, but can you imagine if a writer walked into a movie studio today holding a script about a violent planet full of talking humanoid primates called "Planet of the Apes"?  They'd, at least, kick him straight out of the room and, at worst, have him committed.  I also kind of have the feeling that with today's racial sensitivity, such an idea would probably be killed in its embryonic stages. 

Anyway, It's amazing what kind of shit people come up with.

***** UPDATE!    --- I saw the movie today and there probably are only a hundred or so renegade apes.  I still do wish they flew over from Africa though.