Return of the Dragon

Lysander Luddite writes: "More CG actors, this time of Bruce Lee in a film tentatively titled "Dragon Warrior" by Korean filmmaker Chul Shin. Wired has the details. Compare to an older Wired article when this type of thing was just beginning." There's a Reuters article too.

Comments

What does hollywood want?

[Alien54]

is developing software that will fool audiences into believing they're seeing Bruce Lee in the flesh.

I can just imagine that what Hollywood wants is to be able to by the rights to the images of famous actors from their estates, so that they can pump out endless movies with familiar faces on the cheap. Just think of those commercials from a few years ago where bogart and wayne were seen to be pushing coca cola.

If they had a chance, they would likely jump at the chance. Never mind someone who looks like some celebrity, but isn't quite. I can just see the law suits now!

I recall some story on slash a while back about the chance of thise sort of thing happening down the road with digital actors on your computer desktop. (I think this was about using a gaming system as a movie production tool) A movie file then would in some way be sort of similar to a MIDI file, specifying the actors actions. There are obvious applications for all varieties of "Home Entertainment" projects (quit leering!)

WAHKAAA! ..it's just not the same.

[Nijika]

You can't re-animate Bruce Lee, period. You can try in video games, you can try with CG, but you'll never get the essence. What hollywood should be doing is trying to find someone with the same charisma he had. Also, I think we're overlooking the Martial Arts stars we've already got on the market. Jackie Chan and the ever wired up Jet Li to name a few good ones.

Re:Digital Slavery

[Mike Schiraldi]

Dude, that doesn't make any sense. You need the estate's approval to do any of this.

(He's dead so he can't sue)

Are you a troll? His family can certainly sue.

Re:WAHKAAA! ..it's just not the same.

[rikki_t]

In Deed - the _entire_ point of Bruce Lee's skill was that he did things other people couldn't. Hell, he did things with his body we didn't think bodies could do. So they think that now they can find some guy who studied Jeet Kun Do, or whatever it is they are saying he has mastered, and he'll move like Bruce?

The point is, nobody moves like Bruce. That's why we watch him. I'm thinking this will be bad not only for the moral reasons (which bug me immensely), but for the technical/practical reasons. And hell, why not just call it Tekken 8: The Movie. Starring Law.

They Did Get Permission, But...

[libertynews]

But I still don't think its right. I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan but it just doesn't seem right to resurrect him as a Digital Zombie. Are we going to see a film starring Bruce and his son Brandon (who was killed while filming The Crow)? I'd rather just enjoy the films he did make. There still isn't anyone who can move like he did.

We've done fur, now onto dead people.

[phamlen]

In the quoted 1995 Wired article, there's an interesting line:

" They still can't do hair very well, though. "The big challenge [is] fur," says Johnston. "

Today we have Sulley from Monsters Inc - every hair in his fur is separately modeled. I guess since they've mastered fur, they can now move onto dead people.

Re:Digital Slavery

[theghost]

What dumb-ass rated this as funny?

derrickh may be simplifying it a little, but his point is valid and scary.

People (or at least their images, voices, and names) will become commodities. They will be bought and sold by collectors, investors, studios, and Associations (as in MPAA and RIAA). Do you trust your "estate" not to sell you to the highest bidder to pay off their mortgage?

How long will it be until the studios are getting desperate young actors to sign away the rights to their own face and voices? Suddenly a career consists of stepping into a biometric scanning booth and collecting royalty checks.

How long before the MPAA buys enough senators to pass a law saying the actors' images are the studios' IP?

The problem here is not with the technology, but with the organizations that control it. The technology could be used to encourage creativity and provide a continuing legacy, but in our world, dignity almost always loses out to greed.

CG whiz-bang overkill

[option8]

Shin is looking for an actor whose voice resembles Lee's voice to read his lines; he says it's a relatively simple task to digitally doctor the voice to make it a near-exact replica of Lee's voice.

...

Shin also has a short list of Asian martial arts performers who have learned to imitate Lee's moves very closely. He plans to film them using motion capture equipment that he can then incorporate into his digital Bruce Lee models -- giving fight sequences a natural flow.

so.. he's going to have a Lee talkalike and a Lee fightalike, and potentially a Lee lookalike (for wide shots and such). so why not just use them, and traditional photography, instead of trying to resurrect Bruce Himself through technology? Hell, Brandon Lee did an admirable job in his shot at it.

the result would likely be a better homage to Lee, and less the necropheliac masturbation that has been the result of similar efforts thus far.

let the dead stay dead, dammit. especially the dead guys we liked when they were alive.