Andy Serkis

The time for War is finally here…OK, sure, there’s been bloodshed and skirmishes and battles, but what’s happening in the third installment of the rebooted Apes franchise is flat-out warfare. As Andy Serkis’ iconic protagonist says in the new trailer for Matt Reeves’ sequel, Caesar didn’t start this war, and while you probably expect him to follow that up with, “but I’m going to finish it,” it hasn’t come to that just yet.

On Thursday, 20th Century Fox showed journalists some sneak peek footage from the upcoming War for the Planet of the Apes. I got to see some brand new unreleased footage, hear some details from director Matt Reeves, and see the new trailer.

Few franchises have had a more successful or impressive reinvention in recent years as Planet of the Apes. The original series, beloved in its day, petered out by the middle of the 1970s, and the first attempt to revive it, in a 2001 film from director Tim Burton, proved disastrous. But the new prequel series, charting the descent of our human world into a planet full of those damn, dirty apes, has breathed new life into the old property. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a late-summer hit in August 2011, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes outgrossed it three years later. (It made about $30 million more in the U.S. and a whopping $220 million more worldwide.)

It seems as though J.J. Abrams may have taken a note from Joss Whedon and ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ when casting Andy Serkis in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ It was confirmed over the weekend that Serkis is indeed the voice narrating the first trailer for the new ‘Star Wars’ film and that he’ll be playing a live-action role in the film—but if a new report is to believed, Abrams may have ordered the ‘Avengers 2' Serkis Special: that’s one Andy Serkis live-action performance along with a generous portion of Serkis’ exceedingly talented motion-capture work on the side.

Just yesterday we learned that Benedict Cumberbatch of 'The Hobbit' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' fame was the first to sign on to 'Jungle Book: Origins,' the directorial debut of the great motion-capture artist Andy Serkis. While Disney's competing 'Jungle Book' movie already solidified the majority of its cast, Warner Bros. was quietly doing the same, and now we have the names of seven other stars joining Cumberbatch and Serkis.

While Disney has set their live action version of 'The Jungle Book' to hit theaters in 2015, Warner Bros. has just announced an official title and release date for their own 'Jungle Book' project: Officially titled 'Jungle Book: Origins,' the new live action movie from motion capture master Andy Serkis will hit theaters just a little over a year later.

With 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' now in theaters, marking a high point for this art form, we take a look back at some of the most incredible instances of motion-capture performances, and see how this art form has evolved.