Big news today! Bond 23 gets a title... wait for it... Skyfall! Wow! As usual this means nothing to me. It's just another random naming of a Bond adventure that will inevitably lead to another completely average theme song and a much more interesting trippy opening credit sequence featuring sillhouetted women posing suggestively with guns... or something. Slightly more promising than the underwhelming title is the news that Javier Bardem will be following his creepy turn in No Country for Old Men with a stab at a Bond villain. Oh and apparently Bond may have a beard in this one. Being directed by Sam Mendes could be reason to get very excited or it could be a reason to go; Bond? The director of American Beauty? WTF???
Forget Bond. The real big bit of news for today is the signing of Andy Serkis to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Recently I suggested here that this might be the first prequel ever to not suck. After getting all excited by the trailer, I was not disappointed by the film and actually really hoped that there would be more to come in this franchise. The prequel spent so much time setting up a great character in Caesar (played perfectly using performance capture technology by Andy Serkis), that it only just got to the rising of the apes in the last few minutes of the film. The scope for the sequel is epic. I can't wait to see how these apes are going to bring an end to the rule of us pesky humans on this planet. It should be two hours of (guerilla/gorilla) warfare!
The signing of Serkis means the return of the prequel's anti-hero Caesar. This is a character easy to empathise with and root for, the CGI playing second fiddle to Serkis' motion-captured performance. Go read this excellent post on why Serkis should get an Oscar nomination for his work! It remains to be seen if James Franco will return, though despite being the hero and a great actor to watch, it was Caeser's story that needed to be continued as he leads the revolution.
Anyway, despite the ever increasing reliance on franchises, sequels, prequels and the ever-diminishing originality in Hollywood, this is a sequel to a prequel that will hopefully be a pleasure to see rise at the box office.
Check out Serkis at work in the video below:
Thanks for the shout-out to my post!
ReplyDeleteGreat video. I hadn't seen this before. Just added it my post. :)
Seeing the shots of Serkis actually performing as Caesar makes you realize how brilliantly exact motion capture technology has become!
Great to hear a shout out for undersung heroes! Yeah the video is amazing, makes you see how you end up caring so much for the pixels!
ReplyDeleteNice, unlike many I was a fan of the new Apes. All Hail Caesar!
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