This morning, 20th Century Fox announced that Andy "The Motion-Captured Olivier" Serkis just signed a "healthy seven-figure deal" to star in the sequel to this summer's $453 million-grossing Rise of the Planet of the Apes as main ape Caesar. Also returning will be director Rupert Wyatt and writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who haven't yet decided whether they'll require the services of human-portrayers James Franco and Freida Pinto or if Apes 2 will be set in a monkey-ravaged, people-free post-apocalypse. Way more exciting than any of this, though, is word that Fox will indeed mount an Oscar campaign for Serkis, whose nomination would be the first for a motion-capture actor (see our previous coverage here, here, here, and here). A few things we have to look forward to: "For Your Consideration" ads touting "2011's Most Acclaimed Performance as an Ape," acceptance speeches thanking agents, managers, and zookeepers, and the sight of Serkis arriving on red carpets wearing tuxedoes covered in tennis balls. Let's make this happen, Academy.
One of the most pleasurable things about covering any Oscar season is that, as rigged as the contest can sometimes feel in favor of whoever has the most advertising dollars or the slickest road-to-a-win narrative, the movies themselves always reshape the race in surprising ways. For instance: A few months ago, I would have guessed that Rise of the Planet of the Apes would be a likelier candidate for Dan Kois’ RazzieWatch than for any discussion of the Academy Awards. On paper, it looked like an unpromising semi-prequel to a clunky ten-year-old reboot of a played-out franchise. In reality, it turned out to be a near-exemplary summer studio movie — exciting, affecting, smart, and a case study in how to use visual-effects technology in the service of a good script rather than as a substitute for one. Which has led to the most vexing question that the members of the Academy’s acting branch are likely to face this year: What should they do about Andy Serkis, who has won some of the strongest reviews of 2011 for playing a chimpanzee?
Rise of the Planet of the Apes rose right to the top of the box office over the weekend, shocking Hollywood and proving once and for all that America prefers animals acting like people to people acting like animals. How did a monkey movie with a laughable trailer and an oddball, animalistic Oscar campaign make $54 million in its opening weekend (a lusty $20m more than its own studio had predicted) and win over a nation of humanity-hating critics? Just as we do when things go shockingly wrong, we asked an agent, a producer, and a publicist just why and how things went surprisingly right.
In 2010, after 82 consecutive years of unrecognition, a woman, Kathryn Bigelow, finally won the Oscar for Best Director. Now attention must be paid to another, similarly maligned segment of the entertainment industry. Grinders all, men and women who have toiled in the shadows of their better paid, more famous peers for literally fours of years, doing yeoman’s work for the love of the craft, despite being underappreciated, disrespected and, occasionally, covered in ping-pong balls. We’re talking about the stuntmen, dancers, extras and people with bad teeth who everyday don form-fitting lycra without complaint to bring quasi-life to the motion-captured, CGI creatures that populate modern blockbusters. The flesh and blood behind the fake flesh and blood of uncanny, otherworldly entities like Paul, the entire cast of Green Lantern, and the artist formerly known as Nicole Kidman’s forehead.
Finally, we’re pleased to report, these undersung heroes have a champion: Andy Serkis. The 47-year-old Londoner has made a spectacular career out of crawling around in front of a green screen: He's the man responsible for Gollum’s annoying squeak and King Kong’s mighty, if box-office underperforming, roar. And now, thanks to a lead “performance” in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis — and his studio — have decided it’s time to give the man his due and get him what he wants most. No not a banana, or a proper role. An Oscar.
A few days ago The Hollywood Reporterasked a question, we assumed, in jest: Will Andy Serkis receive an Oscar nomination for his motion-captured performance as an angry monkey in Rise of the Planet of the Apes? Sure, we thought. As if the equally worthy performance by the smoking monkey in Hangover Part II weren’t obviously going to split the vote! But the article did raise an interesting point or two, about how definitions of “performance” have changed, especially in the post-Avatar world. It also claimed that a nomination had “eluded” Serkis when he played Gollum in Lord of the Rings, a technologically fascinating, nearly unwatchable performance hailed by absolutely no one for its subtlety and grace. Anyway, since we already felt pretty confident about who’s going home with gold next year, we dismissed it and went about our monkey-free lives.
