Andy Serkis is flexing his muscle as a producer, and not just for a monkey. Serkis, best known for his motion capture work in films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and King Kong, and his U.K.-based production banner, The Imaginarium, have signed a one-year first-look deal with 20th Century Fox.
And at the same time, the company has partnered with Chernin Entertainment to produce an adaptation of Samantha Shannon’s debut novel The Bone Season, setting up the project at Fox. Fox and Chernin won the rights in a bidding war. Serkis and his producing partner, Jonathan Cavendish, got in early on the book, securing the rights last year.
Shannon is a bit of a lit phenom. The 21-year-old is still in school, but she already has a three-book deal with Bloomsbury for a book series that she hopes will span seven novels.
The first book centers on a 19-year-old clairvoyant named Paige Mahoney, who roams the streets of London in 2059 as a criminal. But an otherworldly race wants her in their army of clairvoyants, so they kidnap and imprison her in what used to be Oxford.
Peter Chernin will produce with Serkis and Cavendish. All parties involved are hoping for a global franchise.
Andrew Clement "Andy" Serkis (born 20 April 1964) is an English film actor, director and author.
Serkis, one of five children, was born and brought up in Ruislip Manor in West London. His mother, Lylie (née Weech), was English and taught disabled and invalid children. His father, Clement Serkis, was an Iraqi gynaecologist of Armenian ethnicity. His ancestors' original surname was Sarkisian. His father often worked away in the Middle East, while he was brought up in Britain, with regular holidays in the Middle East including to Tyre, Sidon, Damascus and Baghdad.
Serkis was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, and then studied visual arts at Lancaster University. He chose theatre as a secondary subject so that he could design posters.[10] Serkis was a member of the County College, and part of the student radio station Bailrigg FM. He joined the Nuffield Studio, getting involved in designing and producing plays.
Serkis is popularly known for his performance capture roles comprising animation and voice work for such computer-generated characters as: Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit prequels (2012–2014), King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011).
Serkis also earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of serial killer Ian Brady in the British television film Longford (2006); and he was BAFTA Award nominated for his portrayal of New Wave and punk musician Ian Dury in the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010). Serkis' film work in motion capture has been critically acclaimed, earning him recognition from many associations that do not usually recognize motion capture as real "acting". Serkis has received an Empire Award, a National Board of Review Award, two Saturn Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
