Gollum's meatspace counterpart does PS3 title

by Christopher Grant { Jun 1st 2006 at 10:25PM }

After groundbreaking roles playing digital counterparts Gollum and King Kong in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and King Kong respectively, Andy Serkis, the world's most famous motion capture-actor, is giving video games a shot.
He'll be playing the role of the villainous King Botan in Ninja Theory's upcoming PS3 action title, Heavenly Sword.

The BBC is running a short piece, with some gee-whiz tech jargon thrown in to wow the unwashed masses ("one of the processors inside the machine is solely devoted to recreating the movement of clothes and hair") as well as some interesting details on Serkis' specific involvement, noting that he's "taking care of all the performance capture, the casting and is heavily involved in writing."

Hollywood involvement in games is nothing new (remember Bruce Willis in Apocalypse?) but Serkis is the Marlon Brando of motion capture and, as such, might be able to bring some real talent into the acting backwater that is video games. Then there's the whole question of whether or not that belongs in video games ...

See also:
PS3 Impressions: Heavenly Sword
Major PS3 titles missing launch date

[Thanks, ben]

Tags: Andy Serkis, AndySerkis, Gollum, Heavenly Sword, HeavenlySword, Ninja Theory, NinjaTheory

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Vince @ Jun 1st 2006 10:37PM

You can watch it here:
http://e3videos.killerrabbits.net/PS3_Hvnly_Swrd_Serkis.avi

epobirs @ Jun 1st 2006 11:51PM

"Gee-whiz tech jargon " is putting it mildly. Grossly incorrect or simply wrong are the phrase I'd be inclined to use.

By the BBC writr's rationale, every PC has a chip in it dedicated to running Microsoft Word. That the machine can be adapted to other tasks is merely a happy and convenient coincidence.

Kent Houseman @ Jun 2nd 2006 5:16AM

Before I start I have to say that this kept growing in one of those moments where you just have to get all the ideas out. So yea...it is a little long.

I wish them the very best. I am not familiar with the story or the setting but I hope this is the best work he has ever done. Video games have given us great gaming experiences. Some incredible experiences. I find that a lot (I didn't say all) of modern games today seem to have taken a slight step back or plateaud. The games are still awesome but the depths of which a gamer are taken are a lot less than the depths a gamer CAN be taken.

Personally, I have experienced points in games where you get a slight chill from how a game comes across. Whether it is the grand scope of it (or the scope of the games vision) that hits me, the emotions and/or ideas caputured into it that forces a gamer to relate in their own way, or that feeling that this particular game has given you a feeling that few games have given you before and at that moment feels like few will ever.

What is more incredible (and sometimes sad) is that a lot of these experiences were from games with text instead of spoken dialogue. Why is this? I think because in those cases the game lays a lot of the foundation for what our mind interprets but leaves us enough to fill in with our own imaginations. The push for more graphical power and more eye candy through action has eliminated that little gap between what we see, hear, read and interpret(fill in the blanks to create other images in our mind) to laying probably too much out there. That is where I think gaming has slowed down. When you leave less up to the gamer's imagination you are given the incredible task of filling in those blanks yourself as the developer.
I think what a lot of developers are finding out the hard way is that if they are going to take that aspect away and replace with incredible graphics and voice acting that they need to be near perfect in presentation to give gamers that "feeling". I can only describe as a moment of being awe-struck. It isn't easily done. Directors of movies build or lose careers trying to do this. There are a lot of intangibles that have to come together to do it and Hollywood knows that in most cases, special effects can NOT do it alone.

So developers can either take a step back and find new methods to apply to old game developing (I doubt it, its not a bad thing, it is evolution in this business I guess) or they can try and take this in the direction of giving you a movie/game hybrid (I don't think we really saw one yet). Where the plot, setting, and characters fill in everything and you connect the plot points. Every attempt I have seen is lacking in at least one area. Its usually with the characters.

The chance to take this medium a step further by taking a shot in this area is excellent. This is the most an actor has gotten involved in the theatrics of a game. Before when an actors name was tied to a game they just gave their likeness and voice to a game. People who are only familiar with this area in video game terms usually handled everything else. So I see this as having a LOT more potential. Whether they take advantage of it or if it fails I am still happy to see this kind of direction and involvement taking place.

Good luck.

(Ok, I am done. Take it or leave it.)