Monkeying around

If there's one thing better than being involved in a successful film franchise, then it's becoming a fixture in two. Well, three if you count the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Yes, that's the excellent fate of Britain's very own Andy Serkis who, after creating the extraordinary Gollum for Peter Jackson's first tilt at Tolkien, has now successfully continued the character in the director's prequel film trio, The Hobbit.

But that's not all: Serkis is also back in simian mode for a further instalment of the Planet of the Apes prequel saga in which he again plays the heroic Caesar, leader of a growing nation of genetically evolved apes now threatened by a human band of survivors of a devastating virus.

Sequel to the blockbusting Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is directed by Matt (Cloverfield) Reeves and co-stars Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Toby Kebbell and Judy Greer.