Andy Serkis gave life to King Kong.
When the visual-effects team for King Kong took to the stage to accept their Oscar earlier this month, they made a point to thank Andy Serkis. It's not very often that actors are cited by visual-effects winners, but then again Serkis is no ordinary actor. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he created the voice and movements of the Gollum-Smeagol character. For King Kong, he took on the role of no less than the great ape. TVGuide.com caught up with the Brit for the occasion of Kong's March 28 DVD release to get an idea of exactly what's involved when bringing mythic creatures to life.
TVGuide.com: How did it come about that you are director Pe
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Andy Serkis gave life to King Kong.
When the visual-effects team for King Kong took to the stage to accept their Oscar earlier this month, they made a point to thank Andy Serkis. It's not very often that actors are cited by visual-effects winners, but then again Serkis is no ordinary actor. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he created the voice and movements of the Gollum-Smeagol character. For King Kong, he took on the role of no less than the great ape. TVGuide.com caught up with the Brit for the occasion of Kong's March 28 DVD release to get an idea of exactly what's involved when bringing mythic creatures to life.
TVGuide.com: How did it come about that you are director Pe
read more
Andy Serkis gave life to King Kong.
When the visual-effects team for King Kong took to the stage to accept their Oscar earlier this month, they made a point to thank Andy Serkis. It's not very often that actors are cited by visual-effects winners, but then again Serkis is no ordinary actor. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he created the voice and movements of the Gollum-Smeagol character. For King Kong, he took on the role of no less than the great ape. TVGuide.com caught up with the Brit for the occasion of Kong's March 28 DVD release to get an idea of exactly what's involved when bringing mythic creatures to life.
TVGuide.com: How did it come about that you are director Pe
read more
King Kong's Jack Black has eloped with his girlfriend, musician Tanya Haden, People reports.... Desperate Housewives' Nicollette Sheridan got engaged to singer-beau Michael Bolton over the weekend.... Extra is saying that Teri Hatcher and Ryan Seacrest had a "first date" — with "a group of friends," just as any online dating service would advise — Saturday night at a Los Angeles restaurant. The supposedly smitten American Idol host hopes never to hear Hatcher say, "Seacrest... out!"
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Jon Stewart did his best, but it wasn't good enough. There are limitations in being a clever, self-deprecating master of irony, when what the job of Oscar host truly demands is being a showman. Which Stewart would probably be the first to admit he's not.
His humor, politically barbed but never obnoxious, was possibly a bit too sophisticated for that cavernous room. But what really defeated him, as it has almost every modern-day Oscar host except for Billy Crystal, is the deadly monotony of the Oscar show itself. What a fossiled relic. The Oscar broadcast is a classy but inert dinosaur, and this year's was more forgettable than most.
Stewart gamely tried to deflate the evening's pomposity whenever he could — after a montage on message movies, he quipped, "and none of these issues were ever a problem again" — but still, we had to sit through it all anyway.
Even with a last-minute shocker, as Crash
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Jon Stewart
The 78th Annual Academy Awards 8:01: The opening scene just demonstrates why we love Jon Stewart: No one does self-deprecation so funny. Not even George Clooney. I think my dog would look great in a Steve Martin wig.
8:05: At first, the Hollywood royalty aren't laughing quite as hard as I am at Jon's jokes — especially not at the one about the suffering caused by movie piracy. But nothing brings people together like a Bjork joke. (She was trying on her gown and Cheney shot her!) And then the gay Western montage. Not even Stewart knows how to follow up that hilarity, so I'm not even gonna try. Brilliant.
8:16: Nicole Kidman's weird intro for the best-supporting-actor nominees has me thinking right away that Clooney will win. And then he does; self-deprecation keeps working wonders. "So I'm not winning director." The music starts after about 10 sec
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Turner Broadcasting has secured the broadcast-premiere rights for King Kong, scheduled to swing on to TV in 2008.... Universal Pictures is working on a big-screen adaptation of Robert Ludlum's The Sigma Protocol, about an American economist targeted by professional assassins.... Per Variety, the current front-runners to be the Bond girl in Casino Royale are Eva Green (The Dreamers) and Olivia Wilde (The O.C.).... Crime author Patricia Cornwell is donating at least $500,000 to help researchers solve the mystery of the sinking of the Confederate submarine Hunley. If only she invested as much in the ending of Trace. Grrrr.
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And not just 'cause if you ask some bozo to keep it down, he'll tell ya to do stuff to yourself that you always thought you needed a partner for, either. Hostel — a sort of National Lampoon's European Vacation for masochists — debuted in first place at the box office with $20.1 million. (But if people are really so into torture, why didn't Elektra do better? Riddle me that.) Dropping into second and third, respectively, were The Chronicles of a Movie Whose Title Is So Long, It Could Be Considered a Chronicle in and of Itself (with $15.4 million) and King Kong (with $12.5 million). Nowhere near the top of the heap was the Adam Sandler-produced turkey Grandma's Boy, which took in a measly $2.9 million and, we hope, made Chris Kattan feel at least a little better about Corky Romano.
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What a trio of T. rexes couldn't do, a lion, a witch and a magic closet did over the long holiday weekend: If only barely, they toppled the great ape. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Rest of the Title Goes On as Long as the Name of a Fiona Apple CD took in $32.8 million, over $1 million more than King Kong, which came in second with $31.6 million. Rounding out the Top 5 were: Fun with Dick and Jane in third with $21 million, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 in fourth with $19.3 million, and the J.An romantic comedy Rumor Has It in fifth with $11.6 million.
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Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, which this past weekend posted the highest per-screen average ($13,599 per theater versus, say, $9,305 for King Kong) of any film in release, has been awarded top honors — including best picture, director, screenplay and cinematography — by the Florida Film Critics Circle. Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon were named best actor and actress, while Cinderella Man's Paul Giamatti and Junebug's Amy Adams won the supporting categories.
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