We still don’t know which role the king of motion capture Andy Serkis will have onscreen in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON; a lot of people are thinking Ulysses Klaw which seems like a logical choice, others are saying Caesar which is clearly a misstep. While we wait for official confirmation on the role, the actor recently opened up about his role behind the scenes for the film as an on set adviser to the superhero’s performance capture.
He talked with Empire about his work and how it involves perhaps the movies biggest characters:
“We did some work on Ultron. On the development of Ultron before James Spader came on board. In terms of movement styles: was he gonna be human-like? Was he going to be robot-like? So we worked with a bunch of different people, from body-popping experts to dancers, to this guy called Neil who’s nearly eight feet tall…”
It’s not surprising to hear that Serkis also acted as a sort-of coach for his fellow actor Mark Ruffalo:
“We gave Mark weights, we had voice projections so he could do his Hulk roar, on screen we could have a virtual representation of the low-res avatar of The Hulk, so he could come out and feel that sense of scale.”
I would love to see footage of them taking turns Hulking out, trying to get it just right. 2015 is looking like a record-breaking year for blockbusters. Looking into the future even further though, Andy Serkis is currently working on his own directorial debut, JUNGLE BOOK: ORIGINS (I'm hoping for a title change) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale. It’s due out sometime in 2016. The advancements in motion capture technology over the years is pretty amazing; the work on DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES has to be recognized as some of the best work in the field. I can’t wait to see what Serkis and friends have for us this time around.
Who do you think Serkis is playing in AGE OF ULTRON?
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON hits the big screen on May 1, 2015. Blink and you will miss that Serkis face seen above: