Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a big unknown at this point. It could really go either way as we’re still not certain whether anybody actually cares about that the film is even being created. There hasn’t been a lot of hype surrounding it and I’m interested to see if the current generation will even be interest to see the latest film in this saga of apes and world domination.
The movie does have a strong cast, led by James Franco, Brian Cox, John Lithgow and Freida Pinto, but will that be a big enough draw? I guess we’ll find out next month.
What we do know though is that the film will likely feature some superb motion capture, which will be thanks in part to Andy Serkis, who is well known for his motion capture in films like Lord of the Rings, King Kong and the upcoming Adventures of Tintin. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes he’ll be portraying the lead ape of the film, Caesar.
According to a recent print issue of Empire, Andy Serkis has been talking with Apes director Rupert Wyatt about a performance capture take on George Orwell’s classic novel, Animal Farm. The book serves as an allegory for the rise of Joseph Stalin, detailing his totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union using animals on an English farm. The book has been previously adapted for film twice: a 1954 animated film and a 1999 live-action film. Neither project used motion capture and neither were terribly successful.
If anyone is right for the job, it’s Andy Serkis. The man has had more experience with motion capture then just about anyone else in Hollywood and he could probably do a pretty good job with an adaptation of Orwell’s classic story. Wyatt would also be a fine candidate, now that he’s had some experience with motion capture from his work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes. With those two at the helm, I can see it working out pretty well and the prospect of it is rather exciting.
What do you think? Would you want to see a motion capture version of Animal Farm?