When the first Planet of the Apes prequels (they’re prequels to the Heston originals, not remakes) landed there was a lot of buzz about Andy Serkis getting a Best Actor nomination for his motion capture role as Caesar. That didn’t happen. Then the second, and even better, movie came out with an even stronger performance from Serkis. Still nothing. And now the third movie,War for the Planet of the Apes, has come with probably his best performance yet, and is the best film of a fantastic trilogy, and 20th Century Fox wants to make sure the academy is paying attention, damn it.
According to Deadline the studio is making a massive push (of which the Deadline story is no doubt a part) to get the film nominated for a Best Picture, Best Director, and a Best Screenplay nomination while also desperately trying to find some way to get Serkis some sort of award since the Oscars simply won’t allow a motion capture performance to be nominated. They want to get the ball rolling with an award for Serkis at SAG or from a critics group, and hopefully parlay that into a special award for Serkis’ performance, like the one the original Planet of the Apes won for best makeup. Why the hell the Academy won’t get the stick out of its butt and just let a motion capture performance be nominated is beyond me, but here we are.
Of course the Academy is also bemoan to award any big budget genre movies that don’t have to do with WWII, even if they are as spectacularly grounded and well made as War. It’ll be an uphill battle for Fox then, who thinks that once members see the film it will speak for itself. But that’s part of the problem. In relation to other summer blockbuster, War didn’t really draw in the crowds. It is true, however, that it’s easily one of the most thought-provoking films to come out these year, dramatic or not, and that critics, and those that saw it, absolutely loved it.
It will be interesting to see if Fox can pull this off, and if they do do you think it even deserves it?
