From The Sunday Times: He has portrayed some of the most extraordinary characters on screen, from King Kong to Gollum. Now Andy Serkis is emerging from behind the disguises and gaining recognition as a fine actor. Andy Serkis with one of his film characters Gollum on his shoulder. Andy Serkis has made a living out of playing nutters, freaks and psychopaths. So it is more than a little worrying when he tells me that “It’s really hard to come out of character.” He is the Boris Karloff of the 21st century, the actor the top casting directors call for when they want a monster to scare the audience witless. He played the titular 25ft-tall gorilla in the 2005 remake of King Kong, and the loathsome Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the television play Longford, last year, he became the Moors murderer Ian Brady. And we have just seen him in BBC1’s Little Dorrit as the murderous Rigaud, a character he himself has called “a thoroughly nasty piece of work”. Even when Serkis played Einstein — in the BBC film Einstein and Eddington — he brought out the darkness in the Nobel laureate. “It was a dream role,” he says, eyes blazing, hands clasped. “Apart from the great things we know about him, Einstein could be pretty ruthless, manipulative and dark. Ninety per cent of his time and energy was focused on work, and this was one of the biggest regrets of his life He just felt really guilty for screwing up his children, who were part of the sacrifice.” Andy Serkis comes out from behind Gollum and King Kong
Month: December 2008
Hot off the heels from her Star on the Walk of Fame announcement, Cate Blanchett has been nominated in the Best Actress category for the 2009 Critics Choice Awards, often seen as a preview of the Oscars (or so they say). Blanchett has been nominated for her work in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. She has tough competition from Kate Beckinsale (Nothing But the Truth), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River) & Meryl Streep (Doubt). More…
Have you guys seen this new hands-on footage of LOTR: Conquest? It looks insanely fun, this is a hands-on with X=Xplay (G4 TV), and it reveals some new details about the game, such as a plan for lots of downloadable content. The game releases on January 13. Continue reading “LOTR: Conquest Gameplay Footage”
Words associated with Christianity and British history taken out of children’s dictionary Instead, words such as ‘MP3 player’, ‘voicemail’ and ‘attachment’ have been included. Oxford University Press has removed words like “aisle”, “bishop”, “chapel”, “empire” and “monarch” from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like “blog”, “broadband” and “celebrity”. Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society. More…
Also removed: Dwarf, elf, goblin
Eowyn1971 writes: I just thought you might be interested in this: Time magazine’s “Ask Viggo Mortensen”. Readers can submit questions through the online form, then read an interview with Viggo in an upcoming issue of Time. Wanna ‘Ask Viggo Mortensen’?
SCOTTSDALE – Blanco is 20, but he’s well into his senior years. The Andalusian horse, best known for his role as Shadowfax, Gandalf’s legendary white horse in The Lord of the Rings, will perform at Equi-Dance on Friday and Saturday in Scottsdale. The show is part of the Arizona Festival of Horses 2008 at WestWorld, a weekend horse festival that includes seminars, shopping and entertainment. Cynthia Royal, who will be performing with Blanco, said Equi-Dance would be his last tour. “This will be his last performance on tour before we go to Las Vegas, where we will have a permanently based show,” Royal said. “It is not the performing that bothers him; it is really the long hours on the road.” In the two-hour show, Blanco will perform twice. His first appearance will be as Pegasus. Equi-Dance will showcase ‘Lord of Rings’ horse