Rise of the Planet of the Apes allowed Andy Serkis to turn in another phenomenal, fully fleshed-out motion capture performance as Caesar, the ape who would eventually grow up to lead a revolution. Now that it's time for the sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we're preparing to see Caesar in a lot more action-- and action on horseback, no less.
Tweeted by director Matt Reeves, the photo shows Serkis on horseback and in full motion-capture suit, interacting with The Great Gatsby's Jason Clarke, who plays one of the few remaining humans in the film. If you hold your laptop up really, really close to your face you can also spot Keri Russell and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who are both part of the human resistance that was revealed recently in the film's plot synopsis. The fact that Serkis is right there on horseback, in the middle of an outdoor scene with the other actors, is amazing evidence of how far motion-capture work has come since he first played Gollum. When The Two Towers was shot nearly 15 years ago, Serkis had to do all of his motion-capture acting on a soundstage by himself. Now he's in the middle of the scene, as if Caesar really was just an ape actor especially good at taking direction.
You can follow Reeves on Twitter if you want to follow for more updates from the set, but don't count on him to be as prolific as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb, who's provided near-daily peeks behind the curtain of the sequel. Before today Reeves's last tweet came 39 days ago… to wish Elias Koteas a happy birthday. I'm hoping for more shots of Serkis in the mo-cap suit too, but this one is so good we might just have to settle for it.
