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George Lucas to Resurrect Dead Movie Stars?
According to his director friend Mel Smith, George Lucas has a plan for upcoming movies more insidious than a whole Gungan cast. Smith says Lucas is buying the rights to old movies in order to put dead actors in his films. He says, "George has been buying up the film rights to dead actors in the hope of using computer trickery to put them all together, so you'd have Orson Welles and Barbara Stanwyck alongside today's stars." Even if Smith is lying, it makes you wonder who long it will be until Hollywood starts to recycle actors as well as scripts.
If Orson Welles doesn't crawl out of his grave and strangle this arrogant, money-grubbing motherfucker with his own intestines, then at least we finally know that the dead are *truly* and *forever* gone.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Abstruse Goose 92
Part of me thinks this is very creepy and even morally wrong.. but a bigger part actually wants to see it work. Pulling this off in a way that doesn’t look terrible would be pretty neat.
I could care less about seeing some dead actor brought back to life... I’m definitely interested in the work required to make it happen though.
The ethical/legal stuff is a little interesting. This falls somewhere between a family giving permission to use a dead loved one’s image for a product, and publishing something while claiming said loved one wrote it. Does anyone have the right to do the later (or even the former).. should they? Personally I don’t care what people do with me after I’m dead but I imagine some people do.
It’s probably BS anyway
Also lunch time is over. Gotta stay late enough as it is ya know. LOTS OF THINGS TO DO!
Interviewer: Mr. Lucas, fifteen years ago you made Episode III and a lot of people thought you were done with cinema. ...
Lucas: That's right, I had found that children appreciated my advanced work far more than any adult so I was doing a lot of Cartoon Network programs after that.
Interviewer: So what caused you to return to the silver screen?
Lucas: Well, I was sitting at my ranch watching some old Akira Kurosawa films -- looking for some plot or scene I had missed that I could possibly turn into a Star Wars movie -- and I got up to retrieve another sandwich from my Carl's Jr. dispenser in my living room. The machine was several treacherous feet away from the couch and as I got up, my snuggie caught on the ottoman made of hate mail and death threats. Well, I fell and a disc slipped in my spine.
Interviewer: That's right you were in the hospital for several months.
Lucas: Yes, and as I lay there calling for help in serious pain, an apparition of Ed Wood appeared to me. 'Use the cash, Lucas' he said. And I immediately understood that I had primarily ruined careers of living people when today there were whole sloughs of dead actors whose careers I could ruin with advanced computer technology.
Interviewer: Ah, yes, so at that point
Lucas: I started buying the film rights to a lot of dead actors and actresses.
Interviewer: Which led to Katherine Hepburn playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars Holiday Special II last year.
Lucas: That's right, as well as Bela Lugosi having a classic lightsaber fight with Charlie Chaplin.
Interviewer: Well, I think it's clear how you maintain such a hated profile.
Lucas: Well, you know, I try. I try. And I often remind my adopted children that they're what keeps me going. Even though at times it's hard, I can look into my son's eyes and he'll say with so much emotion, "Stop dad, just please stop, people don't want this. Please, please stop." And that keeps me going.
My work here is dung.
If there was ever a story that the "donotwant" tag was designed for, it is this. If the idea of digitally resurrecting dead movie stars to star in new content wasn't creepy enough, there's the fact that this has George Lucas at the helm.
He's probably had this great idea about how much fun Star Wars had been if it had included a musical number from Charlie Chaplin wearing a rubber Gungan suit. Seriously, I hesitate to try to parody whatever Lucas might come up with using this technology, on the grounds that if he should ever read it, he'd probably think it was a great idea.
I'm pretty sure this is being done already.
We all know why he's really doing this. Once all the original actors die, he can release Christmas specials every year for as long as he wants with the original cast and no complaints.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Will the same technology work with porn? What am I saying... That was probably the original intention.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/187269/look-out-indy I can only imagine what kind of awful plans for successful dead movie stars he has conjured up in his head.
Those zombie movie stars and him need BRAAINS!!!
...and that's all I have to say.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I just wish a studio, director, or someone had the guts and innovation to make a movie like "Star Wars" today.
Why is everything in Hollywood gone retro/rerun/remake? It is a lifeless, un-original, and un-creative trend these days and it takes the place of fun, interesting, original and daring movie ideas.
Why do we need to see a re-make of the 'Wizard of Oz?'
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Hollywood is so completely and 100% out of original ideas that it needs to continue to use CGI gimmicks and tricks (i.e. 3D) to captivate an audience's attention?
Argument about how piracy somehow forced them to think about doing things like this in 3....2....1....
an adaptation of Frankenstein would seem appropriate.
I am officially gone from
"...wonder who long it will be until Hollywood starts to recycle actors as well as scripts."
Uhhh, they have been recycling scripts for a looong time, but Hollywood doesn't recycle actors. They just use them up and throw them away. Like aluminum cans!
They're dead.
And I don't see anyone complaining about actors portraying historical figures, which is even more disingenuous as it implies a semblance of truth to his portrayal.
CGI-ified dead actors only feels wrong because there is no interest or purpose in doing it. If we wanted to see the person, it wouldn't be creepy.
Don't we have plenty of dead actors nowadays on our screens already ? Aren't people like Keanu Reeves (or Hayden Christensen, fergossakes) lifeless enough for you ?
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
First there was Laurel and Hardy. Then there was Abbott and Costello. Now George Lucas brings together two comedy greats for the first time, Mantan Moreland and Jar Jar Binks star in "Feets Do Your Stuff".
This is the first step to any of us being the characters in a movie or game. Cool concept.
LucasFilm have already denied the rumour. A very simple Google search prior to publishing this summary would have shown that. I googled "Mel Smith", because I wanted to know if it was the Mel Smith from NTNON/Alias Smith & Jones. Top result, News for Mel Smith... "George Lucas NOT Digitally Resurrecting Dead Actors". On Collider.com, originally reported by On The Red Carpet. I would post a link, but I can't paste anything.
Why is everything in Hollywood gone retro/rerun/remake?
Because unlike the firms on Wall Street, no firm in Hollywood is 'too big to fail'.
I don't know if this counts, but I'd pay $5 for a movie involving a resurrected JarJar Binks and the guy from Temple of Doom who rips out beating hearts.
Who's with me!?
Hello?
Well maybe, but it's been done before with Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Zelig not to mention Fred Astaire's posthumous commercial for the Dirt Devil (at 3m02s).
It'd be interesting to see the end product but I'm certain it will cause nothing for grief for various estates despite any good intentions.
Firefly might come back.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
The film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow featured Laurence Olivier, 15 years after his real life death, in the role of the villain, Dr. Totenkopf, using previously recorded archival footage.
Otherwise we might end up with a situation like in the movie "Looker" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looker
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
this makes me think of Plan 9 from outer space...
Like Warner Brothers forking over big bucks on the unproved Wachowski brothers to make the Matrix?
Or Nolan making Inception?
There are good original movies. I just skip the crappy remakes and vote with my wallet to go see movies like Inception instead.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
"...it makes you wonder who long it will be until Hollywood starts to recycle actors as well as scripts."
Hollywood declared creative bankruptcy a long time ago. That's why every new film is a remake of a comic, old film, or TV show and they seem to have the same 10-15 stars. If George "Ewan is so cute in a rat-tail" Lucas buys the rights to resurrect dead actors, it will be the same 10-15 actors as well.
"Even if Smith is lying, it makes you wonder how long it will be until Hollywood starts to recycle actors as well as scripts"
I think that last part should read "to recycle actors like they do scripts". Hollywood certainly doesn't recycle scripts well.
Now he can not only ruin our memories of a series by adding 3 load-of-crap movies to it - but he can also ruin an actor's popularity by starring them in it.
Isn't that what they've been doing for the last 80 years?
So we have an ex-comedian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Smith quoted by a _British_ tabloid quoted by Gizmodo quoted by Slashdot. Now that is what I call reliable info.
"Windows are for cheaters" - Bruce Springsteen
Now, now, let's not get up in arms about this. Lucas develops new filmmaking technology, then other directors put it to good use.
This tech could lead the way to a live-action Futurama. Those heads in jars are going to have to be CGI, might as well make them look as good as possible. And we need to perfect the technology so that Zoidberg isn't as annoying as Jar-Jar.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
The answer to your questions: $$$
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The movies produced by the big studios have always been driven by the profit motive. "Art" was only valuable to the studios if it contributed to the bottom line.
It is the same thing now. "Skins" will be used as long as they make money.
Preserve the old movies, but don't lament their transformation. Celebrate the utter vulgarity of the medium!
Someday, a creative team will craft a happy accident (like Casablanca or Genevieve) through the use of "skins". Look forward to that! Your memories of the old movies won't be debased--remember, you'll always have Paris.
Computer-generated directors and producers that put George Lucas out of work.
Hmm, maybe this isn't so bad after all....
Because when you look at movies from years gone by, you only remember the interesting ones. You forget about the thousands and thousands of terrible movies that preceded the terrible movies being produced today. You're also comparing a sample of nearly 100 years against a recent sample. There will be movies from this year that in 50 years will be considered classics.
Remember all the outrage over colorizing Casablanca in the 1980s? There were even congressional hearings that warned of the dire consequences of unmitigated technology (someone even imagined at the time dead actors being re-inserted in new movies, unthinkable at the time). Sounds crazy....
MPAA Minion #1: Damn, why Leonardo DiCaprio refused to shot our last movie with dead celebrities?
MPAA Minion #2: Guess we have to ask for Homer Simpsons Help. But it's going to be little pricey for a such famous guy like DiCaprio...
MPAA Minion #1: I don't care! We need Leonardo DiCaprio for our movie now! Call him!
George Lucas: I will be in my underground lair waiting the death certificate to start shooting.
MPAA Minion #2: Excellent... excellent. We won't take long!
MPAA Minion #1: Piece of cake!
It is inevitable that CGI/AI advancements eventually lead to the creation of digital actors/stars. As we have seen overt the last 20 years, the capabilities of digital creation/recreation of completely digital characters that are very close to real in all aspects except physical are coming. The technology is still not quite there, but it will get there. I foresee a time when they can take stars from Film, TV, and Video archives, and recreate them using AI to be so close to the originals that most people would not be able to tell. Need John Wayne? There will be an AI of him, Clark Gable? Betty Davis? Johnny Carson? The list of the famous is all but endless. I don't like it, but the public has no say in this. It is between who owns the rights for a likeness and those that wish to use it. The day will come then every character, every animal, every object in a video will be completely realistic, completely believable, and completely digital. And many will not be able to tell the difference. This has implications far beyond entertainment. Unlike photo-shopped pictures, these will be originals. You will be able to place anyone from history in any situation desired. Talk about rewriting History or spinning it,
I read this story ages ago. It won the first Hugo award for best novelette. "The Darfsteller" tells of a time when actors sell their likeness and are replaced by robots (apparently, Keanu Reeves did this early in his career).
George Lucas must've dusted off his copy of this story and said, "Hey, I can do this!"
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
You're also comparing a sample of nearly 100 years against a recent sample. There will be movies from this year that in 50 years will be considered classics.
There is at best a 2 in 3 chance that maybe one movie this year might make it into a "top 100" list. Not necessarily "movies" not necessarily "classics"
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Just out of curiosity, is the rage more from "reviving" dead actors, or Lucas doing so?
Pretty sure I know the answer already, but feel like asking anyway.
As I seem to recall there was some controversy because there was little control over the use of likenesses and the technology was very cheap. The line I remember was talking about a reimagining of an old Erroll Flynn pirate movie but this version featured him "vigorously and enthusiastically taking a cabin boy from behind." I think this story ran in Asimov's.
There was another story that really presaged the Youtube phenomenon. The premise is that everyone had personal video drones and could run a personal television show in their private lives. The observer was rather disgusted with the phenomenon, finding it crass and intrusive. He observes a young waitress trying to turn her life into a sassy sitcom with the customers. She lipped off to the wrong guy and he smashed her expensive little drone into pieces. The transformation from confident and brash and trying too hard to a young girl in too much makeup shaken and crying was pretty bleak. This was her only dream of getting out of nowhere and becoming someone, becoming important. Pretty much the tinseltown dream as imagined in the 21st century.
It's interesting to see those sorts of stories becoming real life. Not so happy about the cyberpunk stuff being made real.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Now you all have another BS rumor to latch onto to start a hatefest.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Duke Philips: "If I want Citizen Kane’s last word to be “schwing” then “schwing” it’s gonna be!"
I just wish a studio, director, or someone had the guts and innovation to make a movie like "Star Wars" today.
I heard there is this awesome new movie coming out called "Hidden Fortress".
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Philips-vision. Maybe Lucas will get Duke Philips disease before he can ruin more movies.
Or maybe we actually will get to see the guy from My Left Foot become a punter for the Bears.
Actually, that gives me an even better idea. Thinking of prequels and resurrections, made me think of one book which clearly could use a Lucas prequel: the Bible. Featuring God's whiny teenager years before he made the universe, gungans, ewoks, and an epic lightsaber battle. (Hey, Genesis 3:24 says, "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." So don't tell me God didn't have a lightsaber.;)
If afterwards he gets struck by lightning, then we can all know to hurry to the nearest church, and if not, I'd like to see the fundies explain _that_. It's win-win, I tell ya.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Just don't let him unpetrify Natalie.
This isn't really a new idea. They did it with Paula Abdul and Fred Astaire in a Pepsi commercial, and of course there's Forrest Gump.
"I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
That comment is so rife with irony...
I guess I need to say something interesting in order to keep myself from getting modded down.
In regards to the story posted and Eldavo's comments - no I don't think George has been ruining acting Careers. He merely takes the whole talent pool from an entire set of actors and imbues it into a SINGLE actor or actress in every trilogy. In the original, it was Harrison Ford. In this latest one, its Natalie Portman. You MIGHT be able to argue that Hayden Christensen is another one - but I actually think he's some sort of anomoly that was immune to this process, he didn't get any better or worse. But seriously, Ford and Portman seemed to be the only ones who have managed to successfully LAUNCH their careers into the higher echelons of Hollywood, who can now demand millions for being on set.
So - here's what I'm hoping. George takes a bunch of Dead Actors and Actresses. They're already famous, and George will put them along side someone we haven't seen before on film. If my understanding of Osmosis is correct - George won't be able to take the skill of 1 actor and spread it throughout the Dead Actors. Dead people can't GET any better at acting, unless they are playing the role of zombie. No, I think more appropriately, George will make all the dead actors SUCK - like it will be really painful to watch and you'll wish it was just the Star Wars Holiday Special. But somehow, this one live actor he has in the film, will manage to escape with the power of multiple famous dead actors and actresses, producing another celebrity for people everywhere to fantisize about while not doing what they are supposed to be doing.
I can haz Joker?
...years ago, when starting pre-production on the Star Wars prequels? I swear there was a story floating around that he was trying to buy up the rights to most of Alec Guiness's old films, especially the ealing comedies, in order to have him "play" the young Obi-Wan.
using the original cast, slightly aged. I hope the original cast members signed a contract all those decades ago allowing Lucas to use their likeness forever.
This is just Lucas starting his own green revolution.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Great. Joan Crawford and Mel Gibson can do a remake of Trog.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
This is reason that people say, "they don't make them like they used to". True, we have readily available Chinese particle board furniture and McMansions thrown up with substandard materials, but back in the day they used to have hacks throwing together shoddy chairs and houses as well... those fell apart and only the solid stuff remains.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Animation was bound to replace conventional acting, and offers much more scope than mere humans.
Anime is popular for good reason, and reflects the restrictions of the cartoon. Remove the restrictions, make "animation" lifelike, and the holodeck is closer.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
with Tron, grafting a younger looking Jeff Bridges face unto another actor.
So why not for porn? You could have anyone you want in your porn movie.... and make it look even more realistic.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_en_ot/us_tron_digitally_young_3
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Tree House of Horror XIX
There are many more books that are considered "classics" than would fit on a top 100 list. Movies are starting to be the same way. There are just too many "classics". I suppose it was presumptuous of me to assume that any movies from this year will become classics - you can't really say much until they've continued in popularity for years. I'm more trying to say that the movies this year weren't of particularly lower quality than an average year from the past 90 years.
Honestly, I think the technology to digitally super-impose one person onto another is a great idea. It would be great to see some new Star Trek episodes with the original cast voiced by good impressionist voice actors.
Sadly, the Great Stumbling Block of the arts and sciences -- copyright laws and their ilk -- will probably prevent that from ever happening.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Pretty much this. 99% of all music, movies, and TV shows are, basically, somewhere between 'decent' and 'crap'. But when you're releasing 1-2 movies a week, you're going to get 2 'greats' on average per year.
Even then, while I fondly remember movies such as Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator, etc... While they're still good, they seem a bit dated to me today. ID4 is showing it's age.
Still, I'm much more a 'new' movie watcher than a rewatcher. I like the netflix service because I can easily get movies and shows I haven't watched before. I'll go more than a year between urges to view my personal favorite classics. So it doesn't make much sense for me to buy.
I don't read AC A human right
I noticed earlier on my news rounds that Lucas has already denied this
What about resurrecting the George Lucas who made Star Wars 4, 5 and 6 in stead. And kill of the imposters who looks like and calls himself George Lucas now.
The media has been doing this with politicians for years now. Reagan being the test run. That guy died somewhere back in the 70s and he still managed to hold office in this country for two terms. A movie actor as a president???? of course they just needed rights to his movies and poof! another public leader is born. So you never notice half his speeches mysteriously flickered black and white depending on the angle of his head and the vowels in the sentence??
Fast forward to 2010 and what he got now? inside the senate and house its just a big blue screen and fat noisy cgi puppets. by comparison lucas is just... doing it for entertainment
Just kidding but, have you been watching jay leno with the fake bits of obama throwing a tantrum during his speeches. Did anyone feel the hair raise on the back of their neck when they did that? Theres just something about this type of editing of our political representatives that should be illegal. Is anyone concerned about this for more important reasons then just preserving the movie classics? George Lucas is perfecting the technologies of something far more sinister.
The rights to reproduce an actor, if they aren't in the public domain, are generally held by the actor or his estate.
The rights to reproduce the character, where the rights aren't in the public domain, do generally follow the movie.
Whether the "looks like" and "voice sounds like" rights to follow a character that had only one actor exist and who controls those rights is an open question.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...is to buy rights to living actors so you can have their looks and voice without their attitude or schedule. They'll come cheaper per-film since they can "act" in many films at once.
For example, Kirk (a young Shatner) interacting with the new Kirk (Chris Pine)...or new TNG/DS9 stories...etc
Didn't he already do this (resurrect the dead) for Indiana Jones 4: The Crystal Skull Strikes Back?
The story's protagonist is a remake artist; he edits characters in and out of digital copies of movies when studios gain and lose rights to various actors' images through arcane business deals and court rulings. There are no static archives of old films (what, you want to be able to time shift using media you control?); Bogart may be in Casablanca this week and gone the next.
~Idarubicin
Video games, movies and television all have something in common: after a certain point, there really aren't any new ideas, just re-hashing of old ones. Given that it makes perfect sense that eventually they'd start recycling the people in them as well.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
This reminds me of a hilarious Lemon Demon song about harvesting the dead body of Alec Guinness (who played Obi-Wan in the original trilogy)
Gonna dig up Alec Guinness.
Gonna harvest Obi-Wan.
Gonna put his body on display with his Jedi costume on.
Gonna go down to the highway.
Gonna build myself a sign.
Gonna advertise to everyone, tell ‘em where to form the line.
Gonna build him some bionic robot limbs.
Gonna code an electronic voice for him.
So when the people come to glance him, he'll be singing songs and dancin'.
All right, all right.
All right.
Gonna dig up Alec Guinness.
Gonna raise him from the dead.
Gonna charge some nerds to swat their toy Lightsabers at his head.
Gonna pull out all the stops now.
Gonna do this, no remorse.
Gonna show them all the meaning of “a great disturbance in the Force.”
Gonna raise him up on wires above the land.
Gonna have him launch some fireworks from his hands.
And if police come knockin' at my door, he'll say “These aren't the droids you're looking for.”
I just got a letter saying that I better desist.
Some legal mucus.
Seems that Mr. Lucas is pissed.
Whatever happened to fair use?
You know?
Whatever happened to free speech?
Where'd it go?
I'm only using my First Amendment right.
You know I won't go down without a fight.
Gonna dig up Alec Guinness.
If I can't, then that's a shame.
I could dig up Alec Baldwin,
But it wouldn't be the same.
Psst, if you like the song, you can get Lemon Demon's first four albums here and check out the other awesome songs that Neil Cicierega (who made Lemon Demon, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, Potter Puppet Pals, Brodyquest, etc.) made on this website. Support the indie musicians :)!
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
John Wayne isn't dead.
There are plenty of examples where old footage is mixed with new. THAT is not what this is about. This is NEW footage of DEAD people being created from scratch.
The Mona Lisa has been "redone" thousand of times with the face being changed to whatever. But nobody has put the model of Mona Lisa into a computer to recreate her to make new pictures with pretending to be the real person.
mixing old and new is perfectly fine, recreating the old, pretending it is the same is not. If I recreated the Mona Lisa and tried to sell it as real, I would be in jail. So why should I be able to recreate Bogart, pretend it is real and get away with it?
If you REALLY want to compare it to existing usage, then Band of Brothers and such do it. They do not recreate dead actors but do recreate long lost places and vehicles. But this is done to tell a historic tale. Recreating dead people has always been done in movies, it is the actors work to recreate a person who either never existed or no longer exist. But this is not about a fictional or historical figure but about recreating an actor as a new actor. It would be like having an actor pretend to be an ex-actor politician and go for Reagan 2.0. Just NO.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
At some point the copyright lawyers will get involved. Just because I own the rights to a particular film clip, does that mean I get to use the actors however I want? Does the owner of the copyright for a movie have the rights to sell the actor's image for other uses? What about the heirs of the actors? What rights do they have? I can hardly wait until the ghouls start chewing on each other.
But hasn't Hollywood been recycling scripts for years now?
"Women. Can't live with 'em. Pass the beer nuts." -Norm
Connie Willis wrote an interesting story called Remake.
All dead actors rights were under license and it was more cost effective to use dead actors then unknown live actors.
http://www.amazon.com/Remake-Connie-Willis/dp/0553374370
I thought only Sith lords can resurrect the dead.
He should be trying to resurrect his integrity.
Resurrect dead movie stars?
As if his ego wasn't big before. Now he thinks he Jesus...
Lucas is a smart, smart man. Right now, the Uncanny Valley makes these depictions and representations of actors cheap. Nobody wants to buy them. But it's a damn fine bet to assume that the tech for making them look much more real will improve vastly over the next ten or twenty years. It's a smarter business plan than a lot of valley startups I've seen. You can't have Brando in your movie right now, but someday soon you will. Buy the rights now while you can.
has an entertaining bit about traveling back in time to 1978 and beating Lucas to death with a shovel. This is just adding fuel to the 'build a time machine' fire.
It has been my hope for years they would make the last three movies with or without the real actors. If it takes a digital Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford to get it done then so be it. We know George owns them all... so why not.
Do or do not. There is no try. --Yoda
In 20 years there won't even be be any film or movie actors. They won't be needed anymore because it will be far cheaper to create them digitally.
Quite frankly I will be surprised if the number of live actors isn't severely reduced by 2020.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This comment, however, is rife with that which excels over other Slashdud comments. Heretofore, Monkeedude1212 (UID No. 1560403) should be blessed with a serving of good karma by positive karma-inducing moderations. You have my blessings, fine sire.
I bid thee farewell.
--Lord AC on High, ca. 8 Dec 2010, to the peasantry with the modpoints
As much as I despise this entire idea, and agree with all the posters above that this is an insult to the memory of dead actors, the sci-fi geek in me knows it is only a matter of time before this is done. If not in the next ten years, then in the next hundred or two hundred. I suppose Lucas is just trying to take us into the Brave New World sci-fi reality sooner than we all expected.
"The Darfsteller" tells of a time when actors sell their likeness and are replaced by robots (apparently, Keanu Reeves did this early in his career).
I look forward to Keaun being replaced by a robot, so his acting will be less stiff....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Just the idea that anyone could take any iconic actor or character and punch their hare-brained fanfic into a film maker program one day... thanks, I'll probably wake up screaming tonight.
After seeing some fanfic and seeing the genius mod ideas people post for various games, I'm going to rub my (crystal) balls and predict it's going to end up with a metric buttload (about 0.93 imperial arseloads) of the following:
- Mary Sue and Garry Stu scenarios. E.g., one super-smart Jedi, who's also secretly an ancient Dragon and a vampire viking ninja pirate, turns out to be the secret child of Anakin and Palpatine (don't ask how) and has a better claim to both the Empire _and_ the Jedi order than Luke.
- Replace some stuff with totally non-canon props ripped from a completely different game or movie. E.g., Luke should look like Sephiroth, use either Cloud's Buster-Sword or Squall's Gunblade, drive a Porsche model ripped from Need For Speed, and wear the outfit of Alucard from Hellsing. Oh, and Han should use a .44 wild-west revolver and have a Moogle instead of a wookie with him.
- Remaking Star Trek with the Star Wars props. Typically meaning someone will replace Han Solo with Picard and Yoda with Kirk or Spock, rename Tatooine to Risa, and rename Han's ship to V'Ger, then give up because a total modification is far more work than it sounds to actually go through with. Nevertheless it remains probably the #3 most requested kind of mod on the boards (well, if you also include "I know, let's add a new continent" or "can anyone please add the whole Fallout 2 to Fallout New Vegas?" requests.)
- Add more romance options, including Luke boning Leia even after learning she's his sister, or alternately have everyone act like Luke is a girl so he can have sex with Han. (Simple flipping an if around like that is how most gay romance mods are made.)
- Replace every female in the game with some "enhanced" body with literally watermelon sized breasts and some utterly unrealistic Barbie body otherwise. Replace the animations so those boobs bounce lots. Give it an oiled skin texture. Make the stormtroopers an all-female corps, and their armour with a set of nipple clamps and clit piercing on an otherwise naked body. Alternately, remove all parts of the armour except the right shoulder piece and the left boot. Add a realistic and graphically explicit prostitution system. (Hey, we're not going to Mos Eisley to see the sand, you know?) Collectively, this kind of thing is by _far_ the #1 most requested kind of mod, and I can see that applying to user made fanfic movies too.
Oh second thought... oh, wait, we're talking as opposed to what Hollywood and Lucas did to the series. Sorry, my bad. Bring on the bouncy boobs. It will be less of an offense than Jar Jar Binks :p
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Best. Post. Ever.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
So George Lucas is actually Duke Phillips from The Critic?
Excellent.
I really enjoyed Star Wars when it came out... was right in there with a theatre full of screaming cheering kids. It was very nicely done from a directorial to a technical point of view - but it wasn't original. The disaffected youth who saves the day? The mercenary with a heart of gold? A Princess motivating them? The "little guys" beating the "evil giants" - or underdogs beating the favorites if you prefer? That was all pretty unoriginal, going right back to the Bible, including the way in which those elements were woven together. It didn't stop it from being really entertaining though.
And The Matrix, while also well executed, was hardly original either.
As for why Hollywood isn't doing better (assuming it has the capacity and I doubt there is much of that)... it is interesting to read the comments about Stargate Universe that are made on http://www.episodeworld.com/ .
Let me summarize: "there's too much character development, too much drama [style of content, not emotional hyperbole], too much about human relationships, too much about ideas" and "why aren't there aliens being blasted???? There should be space battles and bug-eyed monsters". I think SU has its problems but it is also one of the more interesting SF shows in quite a while. There are plot holes you could throw a shuttle through but otherwise it is pretty well done - especially for a TV show (as opposed to movie).
I think the SF audience isn't interested in "interesting, original and daring movie ideas"... so Hollywood doesn't make them. Assuming that they could that is. But I agree - the stream of remakes - some with word for word copying of dialogue are a bit tiresome.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
Christian Bale(?) had to fight several young Arnie clones in the SkyNet factory. Fortunately I dont think any new voice lines were needed. The original terminator never said much.
21 years since the first photorealistic graphic in Abyss and we still require voice actors in animated & real movies. We no longer need actors bodies as this slashdot thread shows. And its even more difficult to synthesize an actual celebrity's voice.
Wonder if anyone has the rights to DeForest Kelley and James Doohan yet?
John Candy's last film was completed by using digital manipulation of stills from past movie frames. But Lucas is making a sucker's bet with these purchases. Instead of using the entire persona of a dead actor there will soon be a science of merging the characteristics of different actors that have proven to generate public interest. For example back in their day Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone all generated public interest. So maybe Pat Boone's hair and skin color with the complexion of Elvis and movements with the voice of Ricky Nelson might create a highly desirable persona over which no fees to the original characters need be paid. You could not clearly point to the characteristics as belonging to any character as the blending would alter them enough to make that unlikely. Yet there is surely a list of factors that people like. A young Mickey Roonie was thought of as having a wonderful face whereas John Wayne's height was an asset. Simply blending the two characters might create the next star. When the process becomes efficient enough all human actors will be replaced. In the case of John Candy's last movie I believe that the computerization of his persona was very expensive indeed but it did save the film.
So let's list some advantages to the producer here:
A) Salaries. We now literally own the dead, so we don't have to pay them.
B) Special divas and temper tantrums? Only if it's in the script.
C) Vacations? Sick weeks? Lost scripts, can't hit your mark, flubbed script lines? Gone.
D) Want to remake an old script with new actors? Replace only the losers from last time and redo / re-relase / re-profit!
and saving the best for last:
E) Copyrights. Lasting only 10, 20, 50, 90 years past death? Pshaw -- amateurs. They're not dead, see -- they're still making profits^H^H^H^H movies! Forever!
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Avatar? Inception? Big Fat Greek Wedding?
Any of these ringing a bell for you?
Listen, I think Holleywood is mostly pushing recycled dreck but there are some original things coming out.
And this years best actor is awarded to... the Jaguar Cray XT5...
just when you thought hollywood couldn't possibly get any worse...
I dont think it was A Scanner Darkly, but there was an SF novel which had computer generated dead actors dominating hollywood, as people wanted to see their favorites in new films. I know we have at least a decade before such characters would be believable in anything but bit parts (whats the phrase for the "valley" where cgi things trying to look real look worse than real?). Its inevitable that films will start doing this, what is not clear is if people will be grossed out. I know some people have trouble with images of dead women as objects of sexual interest, but others dont, so will we have an R rated marilyn monroe film with nudity? how about james dean kicking bloody ass in a kung fu epic? voices may be a problem, and the novel may have had actors doing the voices for the characters. and how about when voices can be synthesized? a new janis joplin album? give us 100 years, and all this will be possible.
n/t
--- What?
Nobody gives a fuck about your computer graphics or your special effects.
People would rather see movies.
John Wayne isn't dead.
Nope. He's making beer commercials for Coors Light.
Whether he knows it or not.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
I can't imagine you could buy the rights to a movie an actor was in and then use their likeness any way you wanted... So does this mean it would be some sort of digital sampling technique where you cut the actor out of scenes, scale the image and insert into other scenes?
Otherwise, how can it be legal to put people in situations/doing/saying things that they never did? If that's OK I can see advertisers plundering the legacy of every great actor that ever existed. Also would that then extend to radio appearances? How about characters from books being quoted or redrawn doing other things?
Could the Catholic Church buy the rights to D.C. Cab and then have BIll Maher's character saying he is a devout Catholic and anything else he "may have said" about religion and atheism was very misguided?
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
People's inability to rate astounds me. On a scale from 1 to 10, anyone giving out more than 20% "10" or "1" votes has clearly failed statistics 101, and should be barred from voting.
I'd expect to see most of the votes around the "average" mark, i.e. 5 or 6, with fewer and fewer votes towards the extremes. Yet it seems that people are rooted in duality, and it's either "love it, 10!" or "hate it, 1".
If I were running the IMDB (or similar) score list, I'd dismiss all 1/10 votes as well as all 2/9 votes from anyone with more than 20% of their votes falling in the extremes, and then extrapolate them from the 3-8 votes based on a bell curve.
That'd also take care of a lot of the ballot stuffing and grassroot[*] campaigns.
[*]: Is it just me who have noticed that most grassroot movements were really started by astroturfers? Plastic grass roots, indeed.
Yes, there are some classics coming out even today. But fewer than back when, when movie companies actually gambled on something new, instead of timidly redoing old stuff or jumping on bandwagons (like 3D) in order to make fiscal sense. Kick the MBAs out of Hollywood, and there will be more classics made again. And more failures too -- that's part of the price.
This could be the first step toward making age irrelevant. Yes, there is a lot of potential for the particularly tacky exploitation of dead actors but on the other side of the coin, it might lead Hollywood away from its addiction to youth and all things young. Hollywood has been using cosmetics to make the young look older for years, but what options have there been to make the old look young again?
Possibly one of the better attempts that I can think of offhand is the appearance of Dick Cavett in Forrest Gump. To a certain extent, Forrest Gump may be one the grandfathers of all such efforts to resurrect the dead and manipulate age. It was a great movie, we have to allow for the possibility that new technologies may lend themselves to more great pictures...
George Lucas has ruined his legacy with the prequels .
What dull garbage. And he can hang himself with his toys.
I tell people on messageboards not to buy his blueray shit too.
I don't understand the appeal of Inception. To me it seems like a heist movie wrapped around navel-gazing about the wondrous mysticism of moviemaking. At the end, I was thinking, "Why are they in Medal of Honor: Siberia-land and why should I care about whether or not these cardboard characters lives or dies? And how could I even tell if they did?"
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
People's inability to rate astounds me. On a scale from 1 to 10, anyone giving out more than 20% "10" or "1" votes has clearly failed statistics 101, and should be barred from voting.
I'll admit that I probably should have said between 'good, but forgettable to crap'.
If I were running the IMDB (or similar) score list, I'd dismiss all 1/10 votes as well as all 2/9 votes from anyone with more than 20% of their votes falling in the extremes, and then extrapolate them from the 3-8 votes based on a bell curve.
Hmm... Personally, I think that you can probably leave the max votes in there, just adjust each individual on the basis of their 'range'. A person who only does 1 or 10 stars is scored as though they're 3 or 7. Somebody who gives pretty much only 4-6 range stuff (4 being 'meh', 6 being 'I enjoyed watching it, no immediate need to see it again') might be adjusted to the 3/7 range as well. But if they DO give out a 10, it gets scored as a 10.
Or just say the heck with it. Average out the number of stars given, then stick the movie on a bell curve or even flat line. IE 20% of movies with the lowest average rated stars, whether that be 1 or 8 for actual ratings, gets 1 star. Top 20%, whether the average is 8 stars or 10, gets the full 10.
[*]: Is it just me who have noticed that most grassroot movements were really started by astroturfers? Plastic grass roots, indeed.
Depends on how you rate astroturfing, I guess. I think it's always going to take some money and organization to get a movement up and running, so pretty much any organization is going to be founded by somebody with resources, IE rich.
If you drop the "f" from the title, Darsteller is a valid German word, basically meaning "actor" -- see http://dict.leo.org/ende?search=Darsteller.
Tschüß,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Holy shit Slashdot is late for the party on this one.
This old story was debunked yesterday on other news outlets; Lucas has already denied it.
Tales from the Crypt episode with Bogart.
I can't wait for the Michael Jackson movie!
*ducks*
Even if Smith is lying, it makes you wonder who long it will be until Hollywood starts to recycle actors as well as scripts.
Well, they've been recycling the scripts for ever now...
Be seeing you...
I understand this complaint about Inception, but somehow it still worked for me. A lot of it was the visual spectacle, which I will argue was done with a lot of class. The film really looked great. But I suspect maybe Nolan sort of tricked me, too, by withholding just enough of the characters' motivations and the back-story of the world in general that I ended up writing most of the movie in my own head. It's not a bad trick if you can pull it off.
George Lucas actually manages it a lot himself. For example, everybody knows that the villain of The Phantom Menace is named Darth Sidious, and yet that name is never mentioned in the film itself. Maybe that particular example is more a triumph of merchandising than of marketing -- but what's a "Darth" anyway? And what's a "Grand Moff"? And Kessell -- where's that? We know they have spice mines, and it sounds like "the Kessell run" is some kind of smuggling route, but why are spices so valuable in the Star Wars universe that they're worth smuggling? The food in Tunisia is pretty spicy -- do they not have spicy food on Tatooine? Is there a shortage? And why are there so many bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe, and who do they hunt when they're not hunting Han Solo? Not the Rebels, apparently -- they don't even work for the Empire very often ("we don't need those scum"). And none of them seem interested enough in men who have the death sentence on twelve systems to hang out at bars in Mos Eisley spaceport -- the spaceport, no less -- so what's their deal? And why would you build a robot that can understand spoken language perfectly well but can only communicate in beeps and boops? Do the companies who build protocol droids engage in predatory business practices? I could go on and on ... but the point is, in a fantastic setting, often what fascinates you is the half that you're never told.
Breakfast served all day!
Will be spinning in his grave at a few thousand rpm.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
In 20 years there won't even be be any film or movie actors. They won't be needed anymore because it will be far cheaper to create them digitally.
Obligatory: Yeah, but who's gonna fly 'em, kid? You??
Breakfast served all day!
Wait, wasn't this an episode of The Critic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Qr1Jm5cK2b4#t=283s
I doubt Smith is lying. I recall reading a Reader's Digest article in the early nineties that was about ILM, and it had a quote from George Lucas saying exactly this.
We have all seen some fantastic editing to put contemporary actors into vintage TV shows. A good example is Deep Space 9 episode where the crew goes back in time to visit Captain Kirk in the "tribbles" episode.
A computer right now could probably synthesize new sentences with an actors voice, as well as new body positions.
I doubt however it can synthesize *acting* and the subtitles of human emotion. Even some of those original actors had trouble with that. Someone, somewhere would have to catalouge the full range of facial expressions possible for a human face, then for the face of the actor, then find a way to catalog each possible minute variation in each facial expression for each of gazillions subtle changes in emotions.
I think it will happen someday, just not now.
On the upside, if it happens sooner we will get new episodes for class Star Trek, but what made that show great was not a picture of a particular actor moving a certain way and saying a particular sentence. That is all a computer can do now.
Harrison Ford: Famous for Indiana Jones (and to some here, Blade Runner).... and knowing, guess who? George Lucas.
Natalie Portman: Famous for her pedigree and knowing people in Hollywood (much like Scarlett Johanssen)
And when the government decides to write revisionist history,
to contradict information put forth via outlets such as WikiLeaks,
the man they'll hire to do the job is quite obviously George Lucas.
Bastard.
After reading your comment I had a voice in my head say "My god! they're eating their own dead now!"
A solution to the "who shot first" debate. Replace Ford with Christopher Walken and greedo will be to terrified to even point a blaster at solo! no shooting required on his side required either, Walken could just squint and greedo's head would explode in blue/green gibs!
Also, replace carie fisher with angelina jolie (with tomb raider style CGI boobs) for added hotness for the slave-outfit scenes!
Oh, and replace the guy playing the various Fetts/clones with Jason statham or vinnie jones
Off course, none of these people are dead yet, but robot lucas (no relation to robot nixon by the way) should be able to buy the rights from their estates just in time for the year 3000 special ulta-unobtanium edition on brain-ray 5D megadisc (subtitled: the way i really intended star wars to be, really, i mean it this time)
People, what a bunch of bastards
with this technology we might find gay porno videos made with Lucas...
Hopefuly before his death :)
Hope he can resurrect Mark Hamill. Haven't seen him in a movie in years. He only seems to do cartoons and video games now.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
It's so hard to keep the fiction part of SF going these days. Lucas is working toward Star Trek's Holodeck.
Have been waiting for this technology to worm its way into society since Data and Jordie met Professor Moriarty. But simply inserting characters into their own known environment is just the beginning. Don't like how DeNiro handled Raging Bull? How about Stan Laurel instead? George C. Scott in Love Story playing Ali McGraw's part? Steven Seagal in It's A Wonderful Life? The possibilities are, quite literally, endless.
So is the opportunity for cries of plagiarism, but that's another discussion.
Seriously, what is the big deal? I think it would be cool to see some of the old actors animated to do new movies. Steve McQueen racing around San Francisco in a new Mustang would be a hoot.
In the video / "documentary" "Computer Dreams", an early 80s exploration of CGI narrated by Amanda Pays (recently of "Max Headroom") there's a small segment where an obviously CGI guy pounds on a podium and says something like "When I'm president of the guild, synthetic parts will go to synthetic actors!" Seems like they will have to start thinking about it for real.
If there's anything Hollywood could like more as a movie option than remakes, it would be remakes using the same actors.
They like remakes because they're not taking a chance on a new (unproven) story. Now they can do the same for actors, potentially avoiding disasters like Dukes of Hazard.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
yeah, replying to my own comment.
I just realized what this means is that Lucas will be able to keep re-making Episode I until somebody likes it (or he dies first).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
In 1996 episode Trials and Tribble actions of Deep Space 9, the cast from TOS is used with footage from TOS: Trouble with tribbles.
Considering this was 14 years ago, i think i could be done really good today, fixing sound issues and other stuff.