“I thought it was extraordinarily bold and honest, and quite frankly I was thrilled that James had written it,” Serkis told Movieline. “It just goes to show that an actor who is in pursuit of creating drama isn’t prejudiced against live-action or performance capture or any method of performing,” Serkis continued. “He sees it as one thing.”

In his open letter, Franco extolled Serkis’s turn as Caesar the chimpanzee as the heart and soul of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. “There is no question that [Serkis’s] character arc is much more dynamic and fascinating…” he wrote, calling for Serkis to get awards recognition “for the innovative artist that he is.”

Franco admitted to being hesitant about what performance capture meant for the future of acting before he realized, acting opposite Serkis in Apes, that the medium is an enhancement tool rather than one that threatens to replace human actors with digital ones. “Performance Capture actually allows actors to work opposite each other in more traditional ways, meaning that the actors get to interact with each other and look into each others’ eyes,” he wrote. Beneath the “digital make-up” provided by WETA’s artists, according to Franco, “the thing that was so compelling about that film came from Andy, and the way he rendered that soul is of equal importance, if not more important than the photo realistic surface of the character.”

Having a non-performance capture actor speak in support of the emerging craft gives the “Serkis for Oscar” campaign a key proponent – one who’s not necessarily invested in the medium, or in a Serkis Oscar nomination, who can speak to the greater benefit of the technology. “We’ve talked about it a lot, and he totally gets it,” said Serkis. “He is one of the first actors who have been bold enough to really state, and in such a humble way, that the weight of the movie lies in Caesar’s hands. I thought it was incredibly articulate.”

Serkis continued: “Sometimes for me it’s very difficult because sometimes it sounds like I’m tub-thumping, like I’m the sort of the spokesperson for performance capture, and to have another actor lend their voice in such an articulate way means a lot — not only to me, but to the acting profession. Because part of the problem in accepting performance capture as acting is borne out of the fear and unknowing of what the process is, and to have that explained by a fellow actor is terrific.”

The actor’s first performance capture role came in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, almost by happenstance, when what was originally intended to be a voice performance for the role of Gollum inspired Jackson to try filming Serkis in the character; the resulting experiment paid off handsomely for both Serkis and the film, and the actor went on to blaze a trail with the quickly advancing technology in films like Jackson’s King Kong, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, and the forthcoming The Hobbit.

But Serkis was a traditional live-action actor long before Gollum, and he still takes on live-action roles when he’s not involved in various WETA-aided projects with colleague Peter Jackson and Co. (See: Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy, Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, and Tom Hooper’s Longford, which earned him BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.) And to Serkis, nothing about his process as an actor is any different, whether he’s suited up in mo-cap wear or in a character’s tangible costume.

“In the 11 years that I’ve been involved in it, I’ve never drawn any distinction in the acting process between live-action acting and performance capture acting,” Serkis said. “In fact, performance capture acting is merely a misnomer; ‘performance capture’ is more of a technology, it’s a set of cameras that record an actor’s performance in a slightly different way to a 35mm camera or a digital camera recording a live action actor’s performance. But in terms of the actor process — getting into character, working on a scene with the director, engaging with other actors and finding the drama within a scene — on day to day basis on set, it’s exactly the same.”

So how much will a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination matter to Serkis and Co., given that their awards campaigning has, in the least, advanced the conversation and challenged preconceptions that have historically reduced performance capture to the wayside? If Serkis prompts his fellow actors and the Academy members to rethink the medium as legitimate acting, will that be enough?

“I think, unfortunately we live in a world whereby we have to set a precedent,” Serkis admitted, addressing his Apes campaign. “It’s the way people think, and it sets a precedent to say ‘This is acting, and this goes into an acting category’ — then that shows a marked understanding of what it is. It’s not just about awards, no, of course not. For myself what’s most important is that actors begin to engage with it, and with the process of using it, and invest in it… I think it’s hugely important to keep talking about it, but also to have it recognized for what it is — which is, at the end of the day from an acting point of view, it is no more than acting.”

Source: Movieline

It will be Franco’s first novel, tentatively titled “Actors Anonymous,” and said to be loosely based on his own life. Franco has been nominated for one Oscar, two Emmys, three MTV Movie Awards, three SAG awards and a couple of Golden Globes. He’s won one Golden Globe and two Independent Spirit awards. He co-hosted the 2011 Academy Awards, which were watched by millions of people worldwide. Maybe he should consider taking the “anonymous” out of the title.

That’s something to take up with his editor, Ed Park. Park, a former L.A. Times book columnist, is now fiction editor of Amazon Publishing.

Park was in the publishing spotlight earlier today as the new issue of the Believer hit stands. He was a founding editor of the magazine, which in this issue bids him farewell.

And then there’s Franco, an unstoppable creative force with a million-watt smile. He acts in blockbusters and indie films. He was a regular on the soap opera “General Hospital.” He earned his MFA in creative writing from Columbia and is an English doctoral student at Yale. He directed and starred in “The Broken Tower,” the biopic about poet Hart Crane. He has optioned books by Steve Erickson, Stephen Elliott and D.J. Waldie and has said in interviews he was working on writing an adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s “Ham on Rye.” He has been reported to be in the process of getting a poetry degree from Warren Wilson College, a creative writing degree from Brooklyn College and a doctorate in creative writing from the University of Houston. He published a book of short stories, “Palo Alto,” with Scribner.

He’ll turn 34 in April.

Franco made headlines shortly before Christmas when former NYU professor José Angel Santana said he was fired for giving the actor a “D.”

Source: LA Times

The guru of the group is Mystery, who dispenses advice on the art of seduction using the mantra FMAC: find, meet, attract, close.

The film will be directed by Brian Koppelman. Other actors are yet to be signed.

Franco will begin filming Jay and Seth vs the Apocalypse, which will be Seth Rogen’s directorial debut, this spring.

He is also close to make a cameo as Playboy kingpin Hugh Hefner in Lovelace, a biopic about iconic porn star Linda Lovelace.

Source: Hindustan Times

Regarding the latter, which, last we heard, will start shooting this February, we asked Rogen to clear up exactly which esteemed actors have officially signed onto the project, since it seems that the cast has been changing since the project was announced.

“We’ve decided to add more people, so ideally ‘Jay and Seth’ looks like it has become Jay, Seth, Jonah, Danny, Craig and James,” Rogen revealed. (That’s Baruchel, Rogen, Hill, McBride, Robinson and Franco, by the way.)

“We all play ourselves,” he added.

When we brought up another rumored addition, “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe, Rogen said they might have amped up the role a little too much for Radcliffe’s tastes.

“It doesn’t look like he’s willing to push things as far as we [are],” Rogen said with that catchy laugh of his.

Which means that whatever the guys want to do has to really be pushing the envelope, considering Radcliffe’s well-received and R-rated turn in “Extras” and such. But Baruchel has said they want the film to be offensive, so maybe it’s a safe choice for D-Rad at this point in his career.

“It’s going to be a pretty offensive vision of the apocalypse,” he once told us. “And I want a lot of dead celebrity cameos. Because L.A. is full of famous people, I’d like all of the cameos to be them as corpses.”

Perhaps Radcliffe doesn’t want to play a dead version of himself?

Source: MTV

One-of-a-Kind “Celebrity Beanie Baby®” Bear Signed by James Franco to be Auctioned on eBay

An exclusive, one-of-a-kind, celebrity autographed “Beanie Baby®” created especially to benefit the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation is available for auction on eBay. The Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation supports families of children with cancer.

Created during the 2011 Santa Barbara Film Festival and now currently on display at Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara, the official Ty Warner Beanie Baby® is over 3 feet tall and is signed by more than 30 actors, writers, and directors who attended the annual film festival.

Celebrities include: Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Annette Bening, Warren Beatty, Billy Baldwin, James Franco, Ed Harris, Aaron Sorkin, Seth Rogen, Kevin Costner, David Crosby, Christopher Lloyd, Amy Madigan, and many more.