Andy Serkis Talks Hobbit, Motion Capture

In an interview last month with IGN while at the Cannes Film Festival, Andy Serkis (Gollum) talked about The Hobbit fims and the motion capture industry which got a big boost of interest thanks to Avatar and Steven Spielberg's next film Tintin.

We spoke to Serkis days before Guillermo del Toro announced he was stepping off the [Hobbit] project. "I had a great meeting with Guillermo last year when we were doing reshoots for Tintin and he showed me some extraordinary concept art and we talked about it," he said.

Probed on whether Gollum would have a different appearance this time around, in fitting with (at that time) del Toro's vision for the project and advances in technology, Serkis shook his head. "Gollum will look like Gollum, and in The Hobbit he's certainly post-turning into Gollum. I really don't know what the approach will be for shooting but I'm looking forward to finding out."

One thing, he said, that might be different will be the reaction he gets from his fellow cast members. With the technology of performance capture more industry standard, the sight of an actor flailing about in grey lycra with ping pong balls attached might not be so alien this time. "Hopefully there won't be the wide-eyed looks from Sean Astin and Elijah Wood that I remember on the first day of shooting Lord of the Rings!"