Exclusive: Andy Serkis on Animal Farm

Four legs good. Two legs bad. Performance captured legs - even better.

It was back in 2011 that Andy Serkis opened The Imaginarium - a high tech studio in Ealing, London, with the single ambition to become a world leader in performance capture technology for television, films and video games.

As well as offering a consulting service to creative minds the world over, Serkis and his team were keen to direct and film their own projects. The dramatic scope and visual challenge offered by George Orwell's Animal Farm made it the ideal candidate.

When we met with Serkis ahead of the release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we were able to find out how his Orwellian project is shaping up - from meeting with high profile actors to avoiding awkward scenarious when casting talent in the role of farm yard animals:

"I think everyone enters into the spirit of it and actually sees what we’re trying to do. We have actually cast some of Animal Farm... we’ve got some great people involved. We’re still working on the script, which is why it’s now been superseded by The Jungle Book.

"We started working on Animal Farm almost a year and a half ago, building up the methodology – but I don’t think anyone has been offended by their casting! We’ve met some pretty high profile actors for these roles and everyone’s really up for it. "

You can see the rest of the interview with Serkis here.

(Image: Rex)