Everybody knows Andy Serkis as being the man who provides the motion capture performances for the revolutionary CG characters in Peter Jackson’s films. He was responsible for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, he was the guy that made King Kong possible, and he’s playing the super smart ape Caesar in the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which Jackson’s company WETA did the effects work on. So news that he is being looked at to bring another computer animated character to life should come as no surprise. In the most recent issue of “Empire”, which includes a lengthy feature on Apes, they talked to the film’s director Rupert Wyatt about what he was planning on doing next. He says that he’s looking to work with Serkis again to bring a classic work of literature to the big screen. The two want to make an adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”; the story set on an English farm that details the overthrow of the farmers by the animals and the subsequent corruption of the pig Napoleon when he becomes mad with power. You see, the animals are proletariat, the farmers are bourgeoisie, and the pig is like Stalin… you know what I’m talking about, you probably read this in high school English and remember it better than I do. The potential project is a ways off still and will probably hinge largely on the success or failure of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But as [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Empire magazine has given the web a look at their next cover; a bold new image of Chris Evans as Captain America set in front of an American flag.  That’s pretty progressive for a magazine called “Empire”. While it has been reported that the film’s title Captain America: The First Avenger will probably be shortened in many countries to just The First Avenger due to it’s pro-American, rah-rah patriotism, the British seem to have no qualms with the focus of the film. Inside of the magazine, some of the men behind the scenes make comments about the World War II time period in which the film was set. Marvel chief Kevin Feige explained, “Scripts had been developed that took place half in World War II, half in the modern day and none of those scripts were particularly successful because the costume ended up overshadowing the man …” and the film’s director Joe Johnston added, “I’ve always loved Raiders and the tone that it had. It was period but didn’t feel like it was made in the period. It felt like a modern-day film about the period, which is what we’re doing on Captain America.” Johnston has been hit or miss with me as a director, but it seems like they’ve put a lot of thought about what works and what doesn’t into this film; and any time you can compare something to Raiders my ears are definitely going to perk up. I will rate my anticipation for this one as [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

It’s absurdly early for me to make an Oscar prediction, considering this movie hasn’t been filmed yet, but I expect great things from Empire. Variety reports Michael Mann will direct Will Smith in this forthcoming film from Columbia Pictures. Smith will reportedly play a contemporary media mogul, and that’s all the information out there on what the movie will be about.