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For all three Lord of the Rings films he played the sinister Gollum. In King Kong he played both the big ape himself as well as one of the ill-fated human crewmembers of the sailing ship to find Kong. And now that he's back to star in Middle-earth in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films, Andy Serkis has also taken on a second job: handling second unit director on the duology.

Serkis was asked by Jackson if he would be interested in doing double duty. "When Peter asked me there was this email out of the blue. It was a fantastic surprise," Serkis told The Hollywood Reporter.

The job isn't a easy reward for a longtime friend. Serkis' second unit director job will be as encompassing and involving as the job is on any other movie. "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," he said to the trade.

THR also found out that the Gollum we'll see in The Hobbit films will be slightly different than the one we saw in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Serkis said that while his motion-captured alter-ego is slightly altered it's supposed to be Gollum in his "truest form."

And Serkis feels the same vibe on The Hobbit as he did ten years ago working on The Lord of the Rings. "A lot of the crew from The Lord of the Rings was returning to work on The Hobbit. There is really a sense of Peter wanting people around him who totally understand the material and the work ethic."