Andy Serkis discusses adaptating Samantha Shannon's 'The Bone Season'

By the time Samantha Shannon's debut novel The Bone Season was published by Bloomsbury in August earlier this year, Andy Serkis's Imaginarium Studios had already acquired the film rights. The first impressive novel in what is sure to be a phenomenal seven part fantasy series, The Bone Season looks at a world where clairvoyants are outlawed and forced into a life of crime. 

In this Q&A, Andy Serkis discusses what drew him to the project and how it really is a world he cannot wait to create. Check out the Q&A below.

THE BONE SEASON Synopsis:

Even a dreamer can start a revolution.
The year is 2059 and nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, employed to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige has an unusual gift, she is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and in her world she commits treason simply by breathing. But outside the repressive boundaries of Scion, a powerful, otherworldly race waits in the shadows. The Season has come and Paige’s life is about to change for ever.

1. What is it about The Bone Season that compelled you to include it in The Imaginarium Studio's very first slate of films?
We first came across the manuscript at the London Book Fair and immediately fell in love with the scope, the scale and the exceptional detail of the world Samantha had created. It’s a really compelling story with such a great central character – we all immediately saw its potential as a fantastic feature film.

2. Have you met Samantha Shannon and how involved will she be in the film's production? 
Yes of course – she’s a delightful, incredibly intelligent person. She’s very warm and a passionate storyteller- dedicated beyond belief. We’re working very closely with her on all aspects of bringing the world of the book to the screen. We’ve been involving her with all the early concept artwork that we’re beginning to put together. Obviously it’s her world so we want to make sure we bring it to life in the way that she wants.

3. Can you tell us about how the creative process for adapting a story like The Bone Season begins?
It begins with knowing the story you want to tell. There are thousands of stories contained within the world that Samantha has created- we have to be very disciplined about opening up the world in a way that will lead us on to further investigation in the rest of the series. We need to find the emotional heart of the story; the relationships; the tension; the suspense and the drive, and of course working closely with Samantha is going to make it much easier.
At this very early stage it’s about finding the right writer and the right approach to telling the story. Hand in hand with developing the screenplay it’s also about developing the visual world and bringing that to life, finding the right visual effects team who understand Samantha’s concepts.

4. You have been part of bringing some of the world's most famous and well-loved fantasy worlds to contemporary audiences. Which of your experiences across film, tv, stage and video games would you say has been most helpful in preparing you to produce The Bone Season?
It would be impossible to single out any one single experience, it’s an accumulation of all my experiences to date, but obviously having worked on The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s extraordinary world with Peter Jackson is incredibly useful. Peter basically gave me the opportunity to work on a lot of extraordinary characters in a lot of extraordinary worlds and has opened up my eyes to a genre that I knew very little about before.

5. Will performance capture will come mostly into play when portraying Shannon's Rephaim race on screen in The Bone Season? Can you give us any insight into how you'd like these characters to appear?
We’re in very early stages of designing how we want to portray these characters, and are exploring a variety of avenues to bring these characters to life. We’re certainly not tied to any one production technique at this early stage.

For my 10/10 review of The Bone Season, head to Novelicious.

Happy reading!

Andy Serkis as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes

As a big supporter of the work of Andy Serkis and a believer that he deserves recognition during award season, I just had to share this incredible footage of the emotional goodbye scene from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, courtesy of Hitfix.

Watch this and I defy you to tell me he isn't Best Actor worthy.

Source: Hitfix

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

For those who absolutely hated the Tim Burton remake of the original Charlton Heston Planet of the Apes film, never fear – this is not a remake. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an incredibly clever look at what came before – what happened to make the humans subservient to their all-speaking, all human-esque ape rulers.

The answer comes in the form of James Franco. Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist researching a new drug that could cure Alzheimer’s which is currently being tested on apes in his lab. Bright Eyes, the chimp that has shown a remarkable increase in brain function, is to be the reason why the drug gets pushed into human trials – until she goes on the rampage, ruining Rodman’s chances of taking the drug further. What Will doesn’t realise at the time is that the reason Bright Eyes has just gone crazy was because she was protecting her baby. Will takes the baby home and soon discovers that the drug that was in mum’s system has passed down to her baby. He keeps him and raises him at home along with his own father Charles (John Lithgow) who has severe Alzheimer’s himself, hence Will’s mission to find a cure.

What follows is an incredibly moving and action packed tale which examines the grey area between what is morally right and wrong and what happens when the bigger picture is not examined closely enough. The baby ape, Caesar, grows to be incredibly intelligent and compassionate – thanks to yet more phenomenal acting by Andy Serkis.  In Will’s defence, Caesar is allowed a fair amount of freedom to be himself.  However, by raising him with humans and allowing him to be an ape at the same time, Caesar is stuck between two worlds, unable to really fit in either one.  It is not until he attacks a human (out of love for Charles) that his reasonably happy home life is shattered and he is sent to a facility for apes. It is here we meet boss John Landon (Brian Cox) and son Dodge (Harry Potter star Tom Felton) who are not nearly as appreciative and understanding of Caesar’s brilliance as Rodman is.


Though there is nothing bad to say about the cast of secondary characters, they just don’t grab the screen as much as the central cast. Rodman’s boss is all about the money and not about the ethics, and his love interest, Caroline (Freida Pinto), adds very little to the story and seems to be there simply to give him someone to talk to while his dad is getting gradually worse. Strangely, though, their performances actually enhance the film by focusing the attention on the emotion behind the plot at all times.
The three main actors are incredible. John Lithgow is simply stunning as the confused old man battling with a horrific disease and his shifts between lucidity and confusion are heart-breaking to watch. James Franco is also brilliant, as he battles to do right by the people he loves (and by people I do mean to include Caesar). He sees that he might be hurting one to save the other but his constant inner battle is done with such simple grace and elegance that it never feels overly dramatic or sentimental.

But the absolute central focus of the story, the action and the core of the film itself has to be Andy Serkis. He brought life to Gollum in Lord of the Rings and has now brought humanity to Caesar. The man can ACT and deserves recognition for it!!! Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes could easily have been an action film with breath-taking fight sequences and very little plot. But thanks to Serkis, this film has not just plot, but heart. It manages to strike a beautiful equilibrium between action and emotion, making both aspects that much more compelling to watch.

The inevitable “rise” of the apes is chilling and gripping stuff as they start to get organised, stand taller and plot and the effects at this point will have you wondering what is real and what isn’t. There are little references throughout to the original but don’t be put off if you haven’t seen it – it will still all make perfect sense. It has humour, honesty and action sequences and a finale that is jaw-dropping … and when I say jaw-dropping I am not speaking metaphorically – there was actually a part where my jaw dropped!

Future film makers take note – this is how all blockbusters should be made! The question remains – when the apes rise, who will you be rooting for?

4.5 FOBLES