The Los Angeles Times report that 20th Century Fox will indeed campaign for Andy Serkis's motion capture work on
Rise of the Planet of the Apes to be acknowledged come awards season. His work as "Gollum" in
The Lord of the Rings trilogy and as "King Kong" in
King Kong received similar acclaim from critics, but he's yet to receive any serious sort of recognition for his work. In fact, no actor has ever been nominated for any sort of motion capture performance, with Oscar nominated movie
Avatar receiving not a single mention for its cast despite being up for nine other awards.
"Our job is to try to have people be aware of and recognize great performances, even when they come in this case in an unusual skin," said Tom Rothman, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment.
"I think it's one of the great emotional performances ever. The challenge is to overcome preconceptions and certain prejudices, to have people understand that … the emotionality of the character on screen is not provided by the animators, it's provided by the actor."
Hard to argue with that. Serkis' performance as Caesar was fantastic, and while you have to also give it up for the special effects guys at WETA, it's hard to imagine the character rendered so effectively without a real life human touch. The site go on to confirm that Fox will hold screenings at the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the actor participating in Q&As via satellite from the New Zealand set of
The Hobbit. Behind the scenes material will also be included in a series of "For Your Consideration" advertisements.