[JameRetief]

CGI character goes for Oscar ping!

[HairOfTheDog]

New Line will push Serkis for a supporting actor nomination.

I suspect this is a very clever part of the buzz and rumoring that adds to marketing a movie.

This came up first last week in the Hobbit Hole. Upon reflection, but still handicapped by not having seen it yet, I would hope for a Serkis nomination only if Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortenson are being pushed also, if not in supporting actor, then for Best Actor, on at least one of these works. Maybe I will feel differently when I have seen it, but I doubt it. Tough as these choices are when the work is all good, I hope Elijah and Viggo get their due for great performances in these films.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Past CGI-only characters have looked cartoony, because their "performance", apart from some very basic motion capture, was entirely computer generated. There was no actor driving their performance. What is different with what Peter Jackson is attempting, is that he is attempting to use a real actor to drive the entire CGI character's performance, right down to facial expressions. Gollum's "performance" will be the performance of a real actor, which has never been done before. Hopefully the end result will be so believable that we will forget that Gollum is a CGI character.