The Dark Knight Rises actor has joined on to play Dreyfus, the leader of the human resistance after the apes have taken over. He’ll join the recently cast Jason Clarke and Kodi Smit-McPhee, as well as the returning chief chimp-in-charge, Andy Serkis. (Deadline)

Unfortunately for Peter Jackson, director of the upcoming The Hobbit saga, the higher frame rate of the film’s 3D version might not be an instant hit with audiences. At a screening of a 12-minute, regular frame rate, non-3D clip, Jackson said about audiences’ reception of the innovation, “Like anything, you’ve got to get used to it.” Oh, and of course, because theater owners aren’t the most forward-thinking lot, audiences will be paying extra to see something they’ve gotta “get used to.”

He didn’t specify if the higher frame rate is something you get used to in ten minutes, or maybe after a hundred years of inundation, so who knows if audiences will view The Hobbit as a starter film, which will jump on the proverbial grenade of the learning curve associated with new technologies.

The new frame rate will represent a “hyper-realistic” approach, not unlike the way that higher refresh rates on LCD TVs make everything look like a British soap opera or porn. You know what I’m talking about.

The director showed up with Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Andy “Ping Pong Ball” Serkis, and Richard Armitage.

Whichever camp you fall into, there is one thing on which we can all agree: While performing, Andy Serkis looks like a huge jagoff.

I get it. It comes with the territory. You can’t play a convincing ape without acting like a stupid monkey. And his results on screen speak for themselves. But it doesn’t change the fact that a man hopping around in a “Green Man” outfit with a bunch of pins stuck to his face looks like a fool. See for yourself by looking through this gallery of 21 pics of Andy Serkis looking like a jag off. Check out more funny pictures here.

With every list of nominees, there are inevitable snubs. Here’s a rundown of the actors and films we feel should at least be considered by the dillhole Academy.

Uggie

Granted, The Artist has charm out the ass. But one can’t deny the contributions of George Valentin’s canine sidekick, played excellently by Uggie, who kept perfect pace with the film’s leads. He can do it all! Jump up and down, pull people out of quicksand, skateboard! And check out that pic! Dude is packing some serious Fassbender. Hell, is it too late to make him the Oscars host?

Andy Serkis

Andy Serkis got a ton of buzz for his work in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Deservedly so. The master of motion capture brought Caesar to life, giving the character more complex emotions than traditional animation could ever provide that really shaped the film’s more heartbreaking moments.

This snub doesn’t appear to be directly pointed at Serkis as an actor, but more so at the technique of motion-capture itself. Another HUGE snub goes to The Adventures of Tintin in the animated category. That movie is pure awesome and didn’t get a nod. Yet, Puss In Boots makes the list despite its animated style having been featured on screens in four other movies over the past 11 years.

Motion capture strips an actor of their identity and allows them to invent a character completely from scratch. Serkis knows this and has spent a good part of his career honing these abilities. He’s at least deserving of recognition for his accomplishments. These other guys, not so much.

Tom Hanks – The Polar Express

Tom Hanks finally shed his nice guy image with his performance in Robert Zemeckis‘s The Polar Express. Once regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood, the multiple Academy Award winner is now known as a dead-eyed, clammy-skinned abductor of children. Look at the stern, cold reserve in those eyes. You don’t want that climbing into your son’s room in the middle of the night.

Sam Worthington – Avatar

Though Avatar was a huge leap forward for 3D and motion capture technology, it was criticized for its weak plot and acting. A lot of the hate was directed at the film’s lead, Sam Worthington. I feel that this was unfair. He played a pretty convincing paraplegic turned giant cat person and he hardly even slipped back into an Australian accent. Still, the movie wasn’t exactly Ishtar.

It’s not hard to determine why the Academy, critics, and audiences would respond to an actor immersing themselves in characters that are so disparate from their selves. And by that rationale, a performance via motion-capture in a CGI film could ostensibly be the pinnacle of acting as we know it. The actor is stripped of his or her identity, their affectations, language, and movement pulled from their body and placed on an entirely new creation, be it animal, human, or other. There exists no better way to lose yourself in a role than through motion-capture technology, but trying to compare a mo-cap performance to traditional ones begs a host of unpleasant and undesirable philosophical questions, such as “What is acting?”

Gross. Let’s not address those.

Rather, I’d take a more practical and quantifiable stance to determine whether a motion-capture actor like Andy Serkis, who has played Golum, King Kong, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming The Adventures of Tintin, can put his performances side-by-side against a turn by Daniel Day-Lewis or Tom Hanks.

Discrepancies abound because, to varying degrees, Serkis’ performances are run through a filter, so we are not seeing the man at work. We are seeing the man’s work run through computer programs using technology that no one really need understand to enjoy his performance. But we certainly need to understand it if we are to allow it to compete against other actors’ for the title of Best Acting Performance of the Year..

It’s no stretch to say that Serkis is doing his job better than anyone else can do it. But so few have tried that we can’t really make heads or tails of what that means, at least not yet. There hasn’t been a deep enough well of performances from which we can draw to ascertain where Serkis stands, aside from the fact that he’s the best. And when that well does get deep enough, the argument could be made that these types of performances should be compared to each other, rather than against traditional live-action performances.

Assuming we get to that point, we will have a slate of other contentions to deal with, namely, the role of technology in comparing and judging one performance against another. A great actor can transcend a low-budget to offer a performance worthy of an Oscar nod, as Tom Wilkinson did for In the Bedroom. But finding a way to transcend crappy motion capture technology is unthinkable right now. Sure, this isn’t an issue in this era, considering most films that do mo-cap technology can afford to do it (reasonably) well, but in the future this would need to be taken into account, and if it’s to be examined in the future, it should be examined now.

Today, mo-cap technology is primitive; future critics will say the performances today aren’t adequately captured, and are just a vessel to display the latest and greatest in CGI and mo-cap technology. Further down the line, I’m certain that we’ll see technology that renders a character like Golum expressionless and quaint. People will look back on an Oscar nod to Serkis’ Caesar the chimp as a novelty offered by voters who had no sense of where these types of performances were and where they were going. While I don’t share the Academy’s high opinion of itself, I agree that a knee-jerk reaction to a phenomenon (regardless of its durability) does no one any good.

In this vein, supporters of the mo-cap-for-Oscars movement praise Serkis for his methods and accuracy. I have no doubt that Andy Serkis did more research into the movements and psychology of primates in his preparation for Rise of the Planet of the Apes than many actors did previously for their Oscar-worthy performances, but the Oscars are myopically focused on what ends up on the screen, rather than who did the most homework. Further, to task the Academy with rewarding this type of performance is to ask them to learn how a monkey moves, then critique Serkis’ methods. It’s a fine line, as audiences respond to foreign, unfamiliar roles all the time, but praising Daniel Day-Lewis for his role in My Left Foot is a far cry from praising him for playing a speechless animal. Perhaps the Academy would like to think they’re that avant-garde, but they’re not.

The easiest criticism of Fox’s effort to get Andy Serkis an Oscar for Apes is that people are conflating Serkis’ groundbreaking work (granted) with a “great performance” simply because we’ve never seen anything like what he’s done. When put up against Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Song of the South, sure, Serkis’ performance looks downright luminous. But what benchmarks do we have?

He’s been the only guy making a name for himself here, as performances in director Robert Zemeckis’ mo-cap fare such as The Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, and Beowulf have been widely panned as “creepy” despite offering up turns by lauded actors such as Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey. Serkis stands alone, which is all the more reason he doesn’t need the validation of an Academy Award. Awards exist to praise a standout among a field of people doing comparable things. No other actor is doing what Serkis is doing. As such, there is no field from which to draw an award-winner.

To be fair, there are so many extenuating circumstances in his performance, like the novelty and technology, that comparing his turn, mired in scuba suits, ping-pong balls, and CGI, against a purer, more transparent performance by an actor in a non-CGI film seems like a fool’s errand. He’s a guy on a green screen wrapped in neoprene who plays animated characters. Let’s not compare that to Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. Not only is it not fair to either party, but it’s also remiss.

I have no doubt that, as I mentioned earlier, there will be an abundance of CGI performances that we can compare against one another once the technology becomes more accessible and standardized. And if we get the urge, let’s give them their own Academy Award, much as we did with Best Animated Feature. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, let’s be very thankful that a great performer like Serkis can breathe life into these roles better than anyone else can without feeling the need to size him up against people that are doing something completely different.

“His journey covers this incredible path of being a very innocent young child,” Serkis said. “We talked about gifted children playing concertos at the age of four or being brilliant at math but are unaware of that kind of intelligence. It’s just natural to them. Cesar believes himself to be of that species.”

James Franco plays the scientist whose Alzheimer’s research creates Cesar’s enhanced intelligence. “Will (Franco) is a father figure,” Serkis continued. “He reaches a moment of self-awareness. He’s led a very sheltered existence. He confronts himself and realizes he’s a freak, a freak of nature. At that point it coincides with being taken away from his family and thrown to a prison, a hardcore prison, a sanctuary with other apes, his own species who he does not recognize.”

Got that so far? Sounds like act two, when Cesar realizes he’s not like the nice human scientists. We know where this is going. “He manages to bring these apes together and find a common ground and lead them to revolution. It was a challenge of getting inside the mind of a creature. Because of the look of the character – Caesar looks like a chimpanzee – we had to discover when he becomes more humanlike and when he becomes more primeval.”

Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens August 5.

10 photos‘Immortals’ Actress Freida Pinto

It goes without saying that the CG work is breathtaking. It must have cost a fortune. So much so that they couldn’t afford to comb Andy Serkis’s hair. But that’s beside the point, the movie looks like it will be heartbreaking. But also awesome. Did you see that chimp parkour off that jerk neighbor’s face?! Also, he spends his free time building a model of the Statue Of Liberty. Also cool!

Bravo, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I’m definitely seeing this when it opens August 5th, even if every plot point has probably already been shown in the trailers. (Yahoo)

‘The Adventures of Tintin’ Teaser Has A Whole Mess Of Danger

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn: Longest Title Ever opens in the U.K on October 26, and in the U.S. on December 23. Hey Brits, don’t yell spoilers across the pond to us Yanks.

In case you’re a little rusty on your Tolkien, both of these titles come from chapters of the book (“An Unexpected Party” and “There and Back Again”).  Now, since I don’t have anything else to say about these confirmed titles, here’s a massive list of the cast:

See Video Of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit’ Being Made Before Your Very Eyes

Whew! No wonder the movie is in two parts. (ComingSoon)

The trailer for Rupert Wyatt‘s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes shows a pre-Planet Of The Apes just as the simians figure out how to get out of their cages and force us to live in underground caves. And this is all thanks to James Franco and his science experiments. He couldn’t just leave it well enough alone. Not content with a successful Hollywood/soap opera/writing/art/teaching career, Franco had to delve into neuroscience. And now we’ll all have to live under ape rule. Congratulations, nerd.

“I think I understand Peter’s sensibility and we have a common history of understanding Middle Earth. A lot of the crew from The Lord of the Rings was returning to work on The Hobbit. There is really  a sense of Peter wanting people around him who totally understand the material and the work ethic.”

Serkis also mentioned that performance capture will not be his only job responsibility on the second unit.

“It is wide ranging and encompasses a lot of directing aspects of filmmaking and story. Yes, there is some performance capture, but I will be very much on the live action sets and locations helping Peter to tell the story.”

When he finishes work on the Hobbit films, Serkis plans on directing his first live action feature and opening a performance capture training facility and studio called The Imaginarium. No word on whether Dr. Parnassus will take legal action over the name. (Hollywood Reporter)

“It’s touching,” Labine said. “We have Andy Serkis at the helm. Basically the leading character is Cesar the Ape and he’s such a pioneer of motion capture craft and had people crying behind the monitors without saying a word, he’s so great. John Lithgow plays a very touching character in there and there’s a lot of humanity to juxtapose what’s about to happen. I think we need to see how humane we are in the beginning, in the prequel, so that there’s a bit of a rivalry between the humans and the apes by the time we get to Planet of the Apes.”

Franklin is a primatologist studying the apes when Cesar evolves into a speaking, emoting rebel leader. He’s a loving sympathizer for the apes too.

“I was kind of playing a bit of an ape myself, a guy who just loves apes, did all the schooling and everything but he’s sort of become like the bleeding heart of the clinic. He was a big sort of teddy bear who is thrust into these really heavy decisions early on in the movie that directly affect the outcome of what come to be with the apes. It was nice. There were some real dramatic turns in there and it also didn’t rely on just me being a smartass which I really liked.”

Of course, no real apes were harmed making the movie. Nor were they even employed. It was all Weta guys in motion capture suits. “Because I’m the primatologist of the clinic that the story is originating from, I did a lot of scenes talking with apes and carrying apes and doing surgery on apes and a couple big fight scenes with apes.”

Rise of the Apes is coming Jun 24.

UPDATE: THR just confirmed that Ian McKellen will be reprising his role as Gandalf in The Hobbit. Everyone can breathe a sigh of asthmatic relief.

Andy Serkis should just live in his mo-cap suit from now on. The actor has agreed to once again put a ring on it to reprise the role of Gollum in The Hobbit, the two film prequel to The Lord Of The Rings.

It looks like Peter Jackson is trying to get most of the band back together. Elijah Wood and Cate Blanchett have also officially returned, with the expectation that Sir Ian McKellan, Ian Holm, and Christopher Lee will also return to wearing funny hats for the films. I think I’m most excited about Serkis returning to play the slave to the ring. It’s the best news I’ve heard all day. This should finally give me all the footage I need to complete my Gollum / Beyonce mash-up of “Single Ladies.” (Deadline)

Deadline

It is perhaps for this reason that the name of James Cameron as director hasn’t come up in recent musings. Though he has proven to carry the Midas touch with big-budget fare such as this, Greengrass’ name indicates that the powers that be might be more interested in a grittier, more story-driven (and cheaper) take, rather than one that relies on spectacle and blue people. His resume includes the two lauded Bourne installments, as well as the divisive United 93, and less-lauded Green Zone. The Greengrass rumors alone are enough to get many to declare that the 3-D novelty has worn off, and that even aspiring 3-D blockbusters will require a story as compelling as the effects. The source material for the project, the unfortunately named Cleopatra: The Life by Stacy Schiff, has already garnered a Pulitzer, so those in line for a Yogi Bear 3-D redux had best brace for disappointment.

That said, don’t think that this won’t be a tentpole release for Sony. With the time and effort they’ve put into this project, regardless of the director, they have every intention of making this appointment viewing for just about everyone in the world with functioning eyes. And just because this epic will have “grit,” don’t be surprised to hear a funny Jewish accent from a CGI snake. I think Andy Serkis is available.

Over the weekend we got c*ck-teased with snippets of images from a first look at Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn: Longest Title Ever. Now Empire has officially unbuttoned its blouse and unleashed the goods. We have three honest-to-goodness official images.

Jamie Bell plays Tintin and Snowy his dog is played by…not Andy Serkis! Haha! Gotchu! You totally thought that since it was a mo-cap animal it HAD to be Andy Serkis. He’s not in every mo-cap movie, ya know? But he is in this one, as Captain Haddock. You couldn’t keep that guy away from a unitard with diodes on it if you tried.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn: Longest Title Ever doesn’t come out until next Christmas, so check out the pics after the jump to get a taste.

^{When did Maxim shoots get so old timey?}

I know that I work for the Internet and am supposed to automatically love everything Simon Pegg does by default, but this trailer for Burke and Hare really doesn’t portray the film in a favorable light. Andy Serkis’s motion capture looks really convincing. It’s almost looks like he’s real.

The story is based on the true story of Irish serial killers in Edinburgh, Scotland who murder their victims to then sell them as medical cadavers. The trailer cites the desire to save enough money to bang Isla Fisher as the motive behind the slayings. I can’t imagine a court where that defense wouldn’t hold up.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

Burke and Hare Trailer (2010) – Watch more Funny Videos

^{Little-known Hollywood funfact: Andy Serkis is 3-feet tall.}

The first set pic from Rise Of The Apes has made its way online showing James Franco and Freida Pinto walking along with Andy Serkis. Not entirely certain what is going on in this scene, but it seems that James Franco’s character is trying to impress Pinto by taking his helmet-wearing brother to Chuck E. Cheese. Just kidding. Of course this is Serkis in a mo-cap suit for his performance as the chimp Caesar in the upcoming film. It really does look like a still from Rain Man or "How’s Your News?" though. (JustJared)

See the full pic after the jump….

Andy Serkis will be suiting up in weird, wirey crap once again to play Caesar, the chief chimp in charge of the Rise of the Apes. This should be a breeze for Serkis having worked extensively with motion capture to portray Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the 25-foot gorilla in King Kong, and Captain Haddock in Spielberg’s Tintin.

I’m really interested to see what WETA comes up with for this film. Now that I know it will be Serkis making raspberries and throwing his poop around (generally known as pulling a Kiefer Sutherland), I’m much more interested. But what of Hollywood’s animal actors? It looks like they will be completely frozen out of this production. I just don’t have the heart to tell Buckaroo. He’s already blown his anticipated earnings on that lavish banana hill.

Poor bastard. (via Cinema Blend)