Andy Serkis is in flux.  Again.  In an industry thick with top-flight thespians known for a complete immersion with each new role, the 46 year-old stands apart because of his whole-hearted embrace of new technology.  From his complex portrayals of Gollum in The Lord of The Rings trilogy and the title role in King Kong to his work as Captain Haddock in Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn and his return to Middle Earth on The Hobbit films, no other actor has consistently morphed from project to project, over the past decade, with the same combination of acting ability and performance capture innovation.

However, the biggest innovation in Andy Serkis’ latest project, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, is Serkis himself.  He reportedly lost nearly 30 pounds, worked out the right side of his body while letting his left side go weak and wore a leg caliper for months to mold himself into the polio-afflicted British punk icon Ian Dury.  His role off-camera also changed, as he conceived and shaped the film with the screenwriter Paul Viragh.  Add those responsibilities to his recently formed production company, a new performance capture studio/academy and you have a man in transition.

Collider caught up with Serkis for a revealing conversation about his changing career and his own background.  Hit the jump for the audio and transcription, along with plenty of stories on The Hobbit, Tintin, Burke & Hare, Steven Spielberg. Guillermo del Toro, John Landis and, of course, Peter Jackson.

If you thought Roland Emmerich (2012) was a bad fit for adapting Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, now MTV is reporting that the director is planning to shoot it using 3D motion-capture technology.  First off, let me ask: is anyone surprised?  Emmerich is making a big 180 with his Elizabethan political thriller Anonymous, but his home is spectacle and nothing is more visually spectacular than the 3D mo-capped Avatar.  I actually fear an Emmerich film in 3D because it would cause sensory overload.  Imagine seeing 2012 in 3D.  It would look amazing at first but by the end of the film your eyeballs would be nothing but ash.

Hit the jump to read what Emmerich had to say about 3D as well as what he told Steve about Foundation back in November.

Since Walt Disney premiered some footage from “A Christmas Carol” at Cannes yesterday, the company has finally started to release some promotional stuff and the first image and footage is below. If you’ve been curious what Jim Carrey would look like as Ebenezer Scrooge, you’re about to get your first look.

While some have not been impressed with Robert Zemeckis’ motion capture movies, I think they’re very cool to see in IMAX, but they’re not the same when you take the experience home.

Will “A Christmas Carol” be the first movie that works as a conventional movie as well as something in IMAX 3-D? We’ll know this Christmas.

Anyway, here’s the first image and the footage.