Fox's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to the 2011 hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, appears to be at a crossroads with yesterday's news that Rise director Rupert Wyatt is expected to leave the project. While Wyatt hasn't officially departed yet, word has it that the helmer doesn't feel comfortable trying to make the May 23, 2014 release date that the studio has planned for the film.
So if Dawn is in fact director-less now, who's the right man to come in and steer the ship? Sure, this is a hot project in Hollywood, what with the critical and financial success of Rise, so there's bound to be a bunch of name directors who'd take the job. But the filmmaker we at IGN think might be right for this gig has never even helmed a feature film before -- we're talking, of course, about Andy Serkis, a.k.a. the actor who stars as the ape Caesar in the films. Serkis and the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director's chair could go together like monkeys and bananas. Here's why...
Peter Jackson. Steven Spielberg. Christopher Nolan. Serkis has worked with all of them, among many other well-known directors. And while being on set with some of the most talented modern filmmakers around doesn't by any means guarantee that said talent is going to rub off, Serkis is an aspiring director himself. His film Freezing Time has been in development for several years, and he has directed short films, stage plays, and video games. It would seem to go without saying that he has used his years on the sets of Jackson, Spielberg and the rest as the best film school money can't buy.
That little trilogy known as The Hobbit isn't directing itself down in New Zealand. And while Peter Jackson is of course the master of all he surveys during that mammoth production, he certainly must rely on the help and input of the crew that surrounds him. That includes Serkis, who took on a much larger role in this trilogy than he had on Lord of the Rings a decade ago. While the actor originally only planned on filming a few weeks of mo-cap for The Hobbit, returning to his famed role of Gollum, Jackson wound up asking him to direct second unit on the films as well.
"The thing with second unit on a project like this, it's not just hand shots or picking up little bits and pieces, it's very much sharing the vision and being his eyes and ears," Serkis told The Hollywood Reporter this summer. And hey, after directing parts of The Hobbit, what's left to be intimidated about in this industry?
Serkis has been a huge presence in the development of motion-capture (aka performance-capture). Starting with Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and continuing with Jackson's King Kong, Spielberg and Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin, and most recently his Oscar-worthy turn in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis has been at the forefront of mo-cap performance for over a decade now; he also founded The Imaginarium studio o foster mo-cap production in the U.K.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, with its continued tale of the uprising of Caesar and his fellow apes, is bound to rely heavily on the form. As Serkis himself has shown us over the years, motion-capture isn't just about the technology; so much more important is the performance within the technology. What better director to bring out that most essential element from the actors than Serkis himself?
We've met Serkis a bunch of times here at IGN, and we can say without reservation that he's a great guy. Disarming and smart, he's also beloved by fans. And that right there could help put fanboys' and pundits' minds at ease if and when it's confirmed that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is losing Wyatt, the director who contributed so much to the success of the first film. No one wants a Brett Ratner/X-Men: The Last Stand situation again.
Serkis is also, quite frankly, probably super-cheap (as a director -- he reportedly secured a seven-figure deal for acting services on Apes 2). That's always attractive to the studios.
Listen, the guy toiled away on Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I was there, on the Rise set for a couple of days during shooting, and I saw him in action in his mo-cap suit, both with his fellow stars James Franco and Freida Pinto as well as with the ape actors who played secondary characters. This isn't just a job for Serkis -- he takes it seriously, researching real apes, studying their movements and expressions, and exploring and translating what he learns through his performance and what he shares with others. He also clearly has a strong grasp of not just what the first film was about, but also how it was made and what challenges Wyatt faced along the way. This would surely serve him well on the sequel.
Of course, having said all this, there's probably only slightly better than a snowball's chance in Ape City that Serkis would actually get the directing gig. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, along with X-Men: Days of Future Past, is a big priority for Fox, and hiring Serkis would be a pretty risky move for the studio.
That said, where would Caesar be today if he didn't take a few risks?
Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.
Source : ign[dot]com
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