Amid the premiere screenings and production deals going on at the Berlin Film Festival, some truly strange news. Screen Daily reports that the man famous for pioneering motion-capture performance as Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Andy Serkis, will be collaborating with Australian musician Nick Cave on a motion-capture movie of the The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill which offers a Marxist critique of the capitalist world. It opened in August of 1928 in Berlin, and as Serkis said about the new project, “It’s nice to announce it in its hometown.” The actor is at the festival to talk about his performance in sexdrugs&rock&roll, as the late rock star Ian Dury.

About a career criminal and set in Victorian London, The Threepenny Opera in mo-cap instantly makes me think of Robert Zemeckis’s recently released motion-capture feature A Christmas Carol, also set in Victorian London and exploring its own issues with greed. I enjoyed what I saw in A Christmas Carol, and the era lends itself to nice cinematic atmosphere, utilizing interesting wardrobe, candlelight, and London architecture. It will be cool to see what comes of this new idea.