Topic: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Andy Serkis is the master of performance capture. That’s what he calls it, not motion capture — because “performance” implies a more wholehearted effort on the actor’s part. And after seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we’re inclined to give this nontraditional actor props. After all, he pioneered the technology when he played the terrifying Gollum in Lord of the Rings starting in 2001. But did you know that he worked with Peter Jackson again a few years later, when he starred in King Kong? That’s right, the 5’8″ actor played the magnificent Kong and actually made us feel sorry for the misunderstood gorilla. Now, he’s embodying a primate again, on a smaller scale and with even more creepily accurate human emotion on his digital face. More »