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Digital Schwarzenegger Set For New 'Terminator'
Hugh Pickens writes "The Governator revealed this week that he may appear in the upcoming 'Terminator Salvation,' but when he said he didn't want to act, he left many fans scratching their heads. Turns out Schwarzenegger has been secretly working with helmer McG and the effects team to reprise his signature role ... without lifting a finger. 'I made it very clear that I don't have the time to do the movie,' says Schwarzenegger. 'I said that I would be willing to be in the movie if they get the technology together, and so they are working on that right now.' A body-cast mold of Schwarzenegger, created when he first appeared as the muscle-ripped cyborg, provided the basis for a digital-effects version of his famous character so the figure can appear in 'Terminator Salvation' as a living, breathing actor. Warner first screens the movie in early May, and opens it May 21. 'I think it's cool to continue on with the franchise ... in case I want to jump over again and get into the acting after I'm through here,' adds Schwarzenegger."
Am I the only one that remembers the bad guys digitally changing the face of a guy who dies in the Running Man to be that of Arnold?
I find it interesting that we are now getting to the point where the future in sci fi films is becoming the reality. . .
Digitized versions still make real money. I wonder what Arnold stands to gain from his participation in the film? Even tho personally I feel his presence in the film will be far more distracting than anything else.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
This probably makes the Actor's Guild shit themselves. Technically, they may have an intellectual property clause wide enough to drive a Freightliner full of liquid nitrogen through. They could digitize him, and as long as he didn't have a speaking part, they could even have an action sequence with him fighting Bale/Connor and all of that, and say "hey, it's all covered under the same contract that lets us use your likeness for Terminator toys, etc. We don't owe you anything."
That, of course, would probably put a halt to actors willing to be greenscreened and bodysuited, and do voiceover for tie-in games like Jackman and Wolverine.
Have you even seen the original in all its pre-CGI glory? There's that ultra realistic rubber Arnold head featured prominently in one scene that would have at least required a full torso mold of him. They might have made a full body cast at the same time just to have it available for other effects shots they had in mind. Total Recall would have needed one too. Hell, there are probably several full body casts of Arnold from various points in his career floating around because of all the special effect heavy movies he was in.
So we may see new movies with Bogart, Wayne, Hepburn, Garbo and many others.
But never Paul Newman. He had this little bit in his will which said his executors should prevent any:
"virtual performance or reanimation of any performance by me by the use of any technique, technology or medium now in existence or which may be known or created in the future anywhere in the universe."
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I've said it before and I'll say it again, quit raping my childhood!
Kirk is now a fat old has been doing priceline commercials and a spoiled emo brat. (Talk about talent!)
Darth Vader is a pussy whinny mama's boy.
Indiana Jones is an old wannabe who is married and has a kid.
Superman has a kid.
James Bond gets played and used by a women and Q is dead.
And the terminator is now a cgi sprit.
Dear lord what is the world coming to?
I understand the need to create sequels but this need to add to a series who's last installment was greater then 10 years ago needs to stop. Come up with some new ideas or at least rename them more then just slapping a increment onto the title.
Since the terminators are based upon real people, he could play an older spec ops type that Skynet captures and studies. Perhaps would make a good sequel/spin-off some day. The finale would have the digitized, younger, cyborg Ahnuld fighting the grizzled veteran real-life Arnold. Bale could cameo as John Conner and save the day, or if Ridley Scott is directing, get there in time to watch the old guy die and join his family in the wheat fields.
In this particular case, since he plays a robot, the only real way to keep him in the movies is through digital enhancement, unless they want to come up with a reason the unchanging cyborg turned into a wrinkly old man and why his giant muscles turned into sagging manboobs.
Not necessarily. Recall that (at least in the movie) they say that the meat exterior of Schwarzeneggar's series of terminator is human flesh. One could argue that they would create a particular "series" by creating many identical copies of (from a particular DNA sequence). Though Arnold was destroyed in the movie T1, one of his "brothers" could be alive and in an older state at some future date.
I suspect this is less about Arnold not being able to find the time than about the changes in his appearance. He's 25 years older, he's had heart-valve-replacement surgery, and although he's still physically active, he doesn't have the muscle-bound physique of his Pumping Iron days. A CGI Arnold will be a lot more convincing than the real thing!
A standard problem when you have people playing "android" robots. Actors age. (So do machines, but not the same way.) I think the main reason they killed off Data in the last Star Trek movie was the difficulty explaining away Brent Spinner's signs of age. So they set up a new character who's supposedly a sort of continuation of Data, all ready to to play the role in the next sequel — which, I dearly hope, never gets made.
BTW, every time our Governor is on the news, I keep expecting him to turn to the camera and say, "Ai ahm ah macheen!"
I thought it was a reaction to the hot grits being dumped down her pants...
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
So in 10 years when we have the hardware to do this kinda thing on the average home PC... how scary is THAT going to be?
Poser pr0n is already bad enough now, can you imagine when it's a) Photorealistic and b) Based on real people?
I can see the scandals now.
"IL&M Apologizes for accidental leak of 3d Model Data"
"Jamie Lynn Spears / JFK sex tape confirmed fake"
"George Washington Punk Rock Show a surprise hit on new Youtube 5.0"
"'Jesus' starring in new Talk show on UPN, Neo-Christian groups object."
Since when does Arnold say anything in the terminator series that couldn't be cut from T2 or T3 audio?
There's no way the SAG would let this happen if he didn't get paid just like he was there, because it sets a very very bad precedent, much worse than letting him get paid just as if he were there. Or at least that's my interpretation of their mindset, I could be fuck-all wrong. Who knows? Somebody will probably chime in to regulate me if I'm wrong, which usually gets an answer faster than just asking around here, so I'm not sure what to hope for.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Because computers, regardless of which method is used, create perfect versions of the speech - and proper use of inflection is still a problem. Humans (at least very few) almost never perfectly say a sentence - or at least almost never say that sentence the same way - and that's not even taking into account inflection which is something second nature to humans.
This is also why it took so long for speech recognition programs to get to even the point they are at now.
Thus when a computer speaks something, it just doesn't sound right.
The same problems existed (past tense) in creating things digitally (CGI), where the object created would be too perfect. And then (round 2 of CGI) even the "random" (ie: not so random) imperfections added for realism were still not quite right. Since then, they've gotten much better on the CGI front - but it too is still not perfect. A perfect example would be the CGI Enterprise in TOS-R... they keep trying different things - yet only rarely got it right. Some of the (better quality) FX footage from the 60's looked better (sans perhaps the graininess - but I am not talking about the filming quality). The model just looked more real - instead of like some shiny piece of plastic. Of course, there are others (companies/people) who have done better - and CGI object technology has come a long way... my point(s) were that voice synthesis has yet to overcome those very similar obstacles.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!