Well, sort of. While Peter Jackson will still be the captain of the good ship Hobbit, he’s turned to one of his trusted lieutenants—and frequent collaborator—to help him capture the action on this latest trip to Middle-earth.
Jackson has asked Serkis to serve as his second-unit director. Traditionally, films of this size have more than one camera crew shooting different scenes at different times—the first unit shoots with the main characters, while the second unit can do anything from scenery to effects material to grisly action footage. And Serkis will have a hand in it all:
“It is wide-ranging and encompasses a lot of directing aspects of filmmaking and story. Yes, there is some performance capture, but I will be very much on the live-action sets and locations helping Peter to tell the story.”
