Many people wouldn’t recognize Andy Serkis if they met him in person, yet they’re sure to remember many of the characters he’s portrayed onscreen, via the assistance of performance-capture technology.
Be it the raspy voiced bag of skin and bones that is Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the eponymous building-sized “monster” from King Kong, the genetically-altered chimp Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes – or, most recently, the burly alcoholic Captain Haddock from The Adventures of Tintin, Serkis has served as the heart and soul of many a memorable digitally-rendered character. Hence, the previous studio-backed pushes for him to receive an Oscar nod for his work in both the Rings trilogy and the Apes franchise reboot/prequel.
Despite the especially-massive push for Serkis to receive recognition for his performance as Caesar, the actor’s name was absent from the list of official 84th Academy Award nominations announced earlier this morning (at the time of writing this). Arguably, part of the reason behind both the Serkis snub and Tintin‘s being denied a Best Animated Feature nod is because many an Academy member is said to be wary of the mo-cap approach to character creation. More..
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Speaking with MTV at the Golden Globes the other night, Andy Serkis played typically coy about the appearance of Smaug in the forthcoming films. “I can’t give any secrets away, none of those trade secrets,” Serkis said. “I can’t say that because actually it’s still under wraps.” However, he did seem to imply that they’re still refining how it will look in the films. Ta to Irfon for the heads-up.
Animation/special effects expert Bill Desowitz has posted an interview with Andy Serkis on Indiewire. In it Serkis talks about new performance-capture techniques that have been developed by Weta since he played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. One paragraph describes his scene with Bilbo in The Hobbit:
Indeed, that’s what happened when Serkis revisited Gollum after a 12-year absence for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (December 14). Shooting live on set provided a more dynamic sense of play in his scene with the young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). “The way we approached the scene was very much to treat it like a chamber-theater piece, where we could experiment and try different things out,” Serkis explained. “Of course, the other significant change now is that we’re using facial capture, so my facial muscles are driving the facial muscles of the digital puppet.”
From waaytv.com James Franco has urged Academy Awards voters to seriously consider his Rise of the Planet Apes co-star Andy Serkis for a Best Actor prize. Serkis shot to fame when he was transformed into the creepy Gollum in the Lord of The Rings trilogy and he has since given King Kong and Planet of The Apes’ Caesar a face – and Franco insists his pioneering work will revolutionize Hollywood. The 127 Hours star says, “To me, it seems like such a shame that Andy doesn’t get recognized now, because this is the moment when he’s really broken through… He’s doing it (motion picture) better than anyone else on the planet… What he does is real acting.”
On December 20th 2011 at approximately 10pm ET/7pm PT, Warner Brothers released the first official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. What followed was a world of fans exploding in joy. We here at TheOneRing.net were equally giddy and now, after some time digesting, we offer our complete and detailed frame-by-frame look at the trailer.
Many people wouldn’t recognize Andy Serkis if they met him in person, yet they’re sure to remember many of the characters he’s portrayed onscreen, via the assistance of performance-capture technology.
On December 20th 2011 at approximately 10pm ET/7pm PT, Warner Brothers released the first official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. What followed was a world of fans exploding in joy. We here at TheOneRing.net were equally giddy and now, after some time digesting, we offer our complete and detailed frame-by-frame look at the trailer.