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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.
...if the title is any indicator, we'll be seeing a lot of 8-bit sprites running around fighting slimes and wraiths.
Is that correct to put him in a film, without let him having the choice ? I think we should think about the respect of his memory ...
Oliver Reed died during filming of Gladiator and apparantly they used some sort of pioneering CGI to finish his scences. Quite interesting as it was considered to be his finest role in years, so is this an indicator of how good Bruce's new movie could be?
Or will it be more like that dreadful Pepsi add a few years back with Bogart, Marilyn and Einstein??
Po
Instead of working to properly synchronize the actor's lips with the dialogue, just dig up an actor who couldn't do it when he was alive. Real clever :)
(Yes, yes, I know the sound was recorded separately from the video for cost-cutting reasons, and yet somehow most real Chinese martial arts movies still take longer to watch than they did to make)
Am I the only one who heard Roxette to sing "I'm gonna get blitzed for some sex"?
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!)
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Here's a scenario: I want to make a porno starring Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin. I use computers to make a lifelike digital movie. Now theres a good chance that people won't associate these actors with the Little Dictator or Gentleman Prefer Blondes. Instead they'll be known for 'Charlie and Marilyns Hardcore Anal Fantasies (vol.1 - 25)'.
Or take it to a greater extreme:
Brad Pitt refuses to star in my next blockbuster. I kill him and have his digital copy star in it instead. (He's dead so he can't sue).
D
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Bruce coulda kicked ass on all them pussies.
I think it's fine to do this sort of thing, but that the film should indicate in the opening credits which actors are digital likenesses, so the viewer can take that into account.
Remembering the Slashdot stories about the DVD player with adjustable ratings and this voice-duplication system makes me wonder&when will films come with face-mapping data built into the DVD (or whatever format) and allow us to replace any actor in the film with the face/voice combination of our choice?
It could start out as a novelty, of course, where you and your friends pop up as extras in the background, but eventually I could see picking and choosing your favorite actors as easily as picking tracks for a CD compilation.
How far do you suppose we are from this happening?
You can't turn a crap movie into a good movie just by putting Bruce Lee into it. These people seem to care more about making a good Bruce Lee model than a good movie, and I bet it's going to show in the result.
Pity - Bruce Lee would have kicked anyone's ass who tried to make a replica of him...
Ceci n'est pas une sig
Crouching Clones, Hidden Actors.
Article and Movie summation, but we'll see in 2004.
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
Basically, this technology just allows us to remix, rehash pop (movie) art again and again.
But where's the creativity? The budding young stars that will be left out while the digital imitations of former greats crowd the screens?
I know, I know, look to music remixes and how creative they are. But honestly, I'd prefer a new artist with a great new sound to a remix anyday.
I hope the same doesn't start happening as much with cinema.
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
lets take old actors and digitize their youth.
That's already been done, or is being done. Some Sean Connery movie is using clips from his old movies as source material to create new flashback scenes.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
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.
Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Ehm, having real actor means paying real actor. Just look at the voice actors/actresses in Japan with them doing anime.
So, what I was _really_ talking about, is how they are going to _totally_ fake voices, hence ridding the industry of actors, making it possible to lower the budgets a lot. Good or bad? I am not sure myself yet.
Karma whore? I am not even that fond of the karma system to begin with, I don't think it weed out uninteresting people efficiently enough...
See i was thinking if GL ever wanted to make Episode 7,8,9 he'd have to CG Luke, Han, and Leia as they are way too old to play the roles now, and you *cannot* trying making 7,8,9 with other actors :)
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.
Remember Lexington Green!
http://www.fiktiv.com/crowe/articles/garticletf.ht ml
Lines of interest: "Totally false," says Penny. "What we did was very similar to the process used on The Crow after Brandon Lee died. We did not recreate a CG Oliver Reed and get him to walk. We just took him from one scene and placed him into another."
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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.
That video was fairly impressive at the time, I believe it even won some siggraph awards. The audio seemed a bit unsynced with the lips at times and the face lacked a certain realism. Beyond that I would be very interested to see a feature length film reviving a star I never had the please to watch during his life time.
If anyone wants to see the video mentioned here and in parent you can find it here
If You Drink, Don't Park, Accidents Cause People.
I hope it's better than this:
http://www.y2khai.com/khai02.html
It's like this and like that and like this and huh.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Kinda like the John Wayne Commercials, but these too will lose their appeal... but then again, considering what HollyWood has been pumping out lately, who knows...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Well....
Jackie is getting (and starting to look) old. He certainly has some charisma but his films are defintely not like Bruce Lee's. Jackie loves action, but not violence. Most of Bruce Lee's work relied on violence and venegence. I think he should do more behind the camera work.
Jet Li looks great on film. He's helped in large part by camera and editting tricks. I'm not slamming Jet, but the style of movies from the early 70s to now is completely different. He does have a lot of charisma although his AMerican films seem to focus more on his "bad ass" side than his HK stuff.
It'll be interesting to see if this proposed film will continue with the contemporary style or go back to the Cheng Che style of filming with lots of static shots that emphasize form and power over glitz and a melange of styles.
You are right about the charisma thing. I'm sceptical a CG of Bruce Lee can capture it. And there are a lot of great martial artists available that just don't have the charisma to be the hero in a big box office draw. The opposite is true of course, although CGI is being used to make Ekin Cheng look like he can do martial arts.
I hate the whole idea of CGI actors, especially using people who can't say whether they would want a CGI likeness of them being used. Its just another symptom of copyrights and IP being applied way too long IMHO.
There's no reason actors couldn't trademark their image -- I'd be surprised if some don't already
Princess Diana's memorial fund has been having a big fight about this since her death (Ok, she was not an actor, or at least not a very good one..)
This has raised all sorts of discussions in the UK and abroad about trying to copyright 'image'. In short, the use of her image for crap merchandising appears to be blocked in the UK (unless it is 'official' crap merchandising of course). But in the US some bunch of jokers were allowed to make a 'singing Diana memorial plate', very tasteful I'm sure.
The BBC has done some articles on this, start here.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Awwwww :(
> You can't re-animate Bruce Lee, period.
I agree with your sentiment, but I'd still like to put in a plug for Jackie's cartoon series, The Jackie Chan Adventures. Made for children, but geeks might like it. No, it isn't like watching his better movies, but it's fun. And funny.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Color me virtually excited! I'll have to send my clone down to check it out first...I can't be bothered with the menial things.
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"I see dead senseis"
At least he's not dancing with a fucking vacuum cleaner.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Your imitation needs work; you have to let it kinda trail off while you look intense and unhappy. Mine would have been better if the goddamn lameness filter wasn't such a piece of shit.
I don't know if I agree with your view on the imposibility of re-animating Bruce. CG has come in leaps and bounds. I do a lot of graphics related work, but I still find myself astounded every now and then with some of the new techniques being published. Even if they fail to capture Bruce, the problems they solve on the way should make for interesting research. Don't prejudge this, it could blow you away.
Wow, the lameness filter really sucks. qwerty
This sig is false.
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.
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I can hear it now.
"Can't these CGI characters even act?"
Besides, what the hell do we need with a CGI Bruce Lee, anyway? We already have a perfectly good CGI Jet Li in Romeo Must Die and The One.
Watch out for those rising stars! Although it wasn't a "pure" arts flick, Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon featured Ziyi Zhang, who at 20 years old already has moves that put Chan & Li to shame. The battle between Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang at the end of CT:HD was probably the best martial arts sequence I've ever seen, and yeah, I've seen pretty much every HK flick of any signifigance.
Let's not worry about hanging onto the past, but instead look towards the future. There will never be another Bruce Lee, but you know what? That's okay. Watch his movies if you want to see him, watch new stars if you want to see new movies.
Abe Lincoln has been dead for a long time, copyright has expired on his portrait (10 years after death, IIRC)
This may be true of Abraham Lincoln, but it isn't true of anybody who died on or after January 1, 1931. Copyright lasts until the later of 70 years after December 31 on or after the death of the last surviving author, or 95 years after December 31 on or after first publication. And yes I do think believe that the term is too long to effectively "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." See also Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
Even then, trademarks never expire as long as they remain in use.
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