Slashdot Mirror
Autonomous Robots Could be the Future of High Flying Stunts in Hollywood (cnet.com)
From a report: Visitors to Disneyland and other Disney resorts could end up seeing robots tackling some pretty crazy, death-defying stunts usually reserved for Marvel superheroes and Star Wars Jedi Masters. Disney's latest Stuntronics experiments with robots include teaching them to crawl, row and now, more impressively, perform daring aerial acrobatics. A new video features the robots propelled into the sky to spin and leap like robotic superheroes. And they look even more advanced and human-like than the last time we saw them. The robots, initially nicknamed Stickman, work by using on-board accelerometers, gyroscopes and laser range-finding data to determine how to perform impressive stunts like single and double backflips.
It's impossible to empathise with a robot. When it's a human up there, even a human stunt performer made up to look like the hero or villain, and we know they're well-trained and well-paid, there's that little touch of engagement between us and the performer.
If it's a robot, who cares if the stunt goes wrong, it falls, and breaks its head?
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Are you counting films or television? I've seen numerous mentions of a "golden age" of scripted television ( a far cry from doomsday predictions of everything becoming reality TV a decade ago).
What would you point to in terms of originality/plot/content in previous decades that is unmatched in the current one. Not being argumentative - I see these kinds of statements all the time and wonder if its just rose colored glasses on the past or folks having legitimate points. Certainly you can point to sequelitis, remakes, etc, but those are certainly not new in Hollywood, certainly not in the past 60-70 years. I think there's probably more of them because of the much larger market for these types of things, but does that mean there's an absolute lesser number of quality films being made each year? I'm pretty skeptical of that statement.
Also, Stallone established himself right out of the gate with Rocky, which he got an oscar nod for. I think he'd still get a nod if they made that movie today, and probably Talia Shire too.