Moviefone.com has a fairly extensive (if unoriginal) rundown on all things known about RTD’s ‘The Hobbit’ films. Take a look!
Category: Andy Serkis
Celebriel forwards news that Andy Serkis has teamed up with UK production company Screen East to assess feasibility for a motion capture studio in the UK. He said in the announcement, “We believe that currently in Britain there is no centre of excellence that matches the capacity developed by Weta Digital in New Zealand, which has been a key resource in delivery of productions such as The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar and Jackson and Spielberg’s highly anticipated Tintin.” More..
During my association with TheOneRing.net I have often felt very fortunate to know great people and be in great places. Sometimes I have been lucky enough to have my camera along.
Out of that vast TORn photo library that includes digital images, and old scratched negitives, I put a few images together with some music from Arjan Kiel, (with thanks to fan film ‘Born of Hope,’) to pay tribute to the whole community of TheOneRing.net.
Click on the small triangle to play and to see the best fullscreen version, click on the box at the far right.
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Serkis’ most critically acclaimed roles have been Sméagol/Gollum, in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (200103) and the title character in the 2005 version of King Kong, in which he provided the voice and movements for the CGI characters. Also in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Andy Serkis played the ship’s cook. His performance as Gollum is ranked #10 on Premiere’s “100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time”.
His acclaimed work on the trilogy set off a debate on the legitimacy of CGI-assisted acting. Many critics felt Serkis should have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, since the movie used his voice, body language, and facial expressions. There is the argument that some of his CGI actions were partially, or in some cases fully animated, without his own movements, but the same can be said for actors in a traditional movie involving CGI. Some believed (incorrectly) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled that he did not qualify because he never physically appeared onscreen. There is no such prohibition, however, and in fact Serkis appeared onscreen as Sméagol/Gollum in the third film, The Return of the King. He also voices the Witch King of Angmar in aforementioned film, although he is not credited. More about Andy…
From contactmusic.com: LORD OF THE RINGS star ANDY SERKIS is to hit the studio with late punk icon IAN DURY’s backing band THE BLOCKHEADS to re-record the HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK hitmaker’s beloved tunes. The Blockheads have given Serkis their blessing to play their frontman, who died in 2000, in an upcoming biopic and will rehearse classic tracks with the actor, who once confessed that Dury’s Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 was among his favourite tunes of all time. Blockheads star Mick Gallagher says, “Andy Serkis’ll do a great job… We’re recording 12 songs for the film; it’ll be live and really retro and straight ahead.”
In case you were wondering how the man who portrayed Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films feels about videogames, Babble put up a fascinating interview with Andy Serkis (via Ars Technica) in which the actor discusses storytelling in games, the challenges of parenting as an atheist vegetarian, and, uh, being eaten alive by an enormous, toothy phallus. Seriously. “Games — there’s no heart in them,” asserted Serkis — himself a veteran of Heavenly Sword’s development. “They’re not about anything that is lasting,” he continued, and whether or not you agree with that assessment of gaming’s current state, the actor has some interesting thoughts on the future of the medium. Andy Serkis Talks Storytelling in Games