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Actors Are Digitally Preserving Themselves To Continue Their Careers Beyond the Grave (technologyreview.com)
Improvements in CGI mean neither age nor death need stop some performers from working. From a report: From Carrie Fisher in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to Paul Walker in the Fast & Furious movies, dead and magically "de-aged" actors are appearing more frequently on movie screens. Sometimes they even appear on stage: next year, an Amy Winehouse hologram will be going on tour to raise money for a charity established in the late singer's memory. Some actors and movie studios are buckling down and preparing for an inevitable future when using scanning technology to preserve 3-D digital replicas of performers is routine. Just because your star is inconveniently dead doesn't mean your generation-spanning blockbuster franchise can't continue to rake in the dough. Get the tech right and you can cash in on superstars and iconic characters forever.
[...] For celebrities, these scans are a chance to make money for their families post mortem, extend their legacy -- and even, in some strange way, preserve their youth. Visual-effects company Digital Domain -- which has worked on major pictures like Avengers: Infinity War and Ready Player One -- has also taken on individual celebrities as clients, though it hasn't publicized the service. "We haven't, you know, taken out any ads in newspapers to 'Save your likeness,'" says Darren Hendler, director of the firm's Digital Humans Group. The suite of services that the company offers actors includes a range of different scans to capture their famous faces from every conceivable angle -- making it simpler to re-create them in the future. Using hundreds of custom LED lights arranged in a sphere, numerous images can be recorded in seconds capturing what the person's face looks like lit from every angle -- and right down to the pores.
[...] For celebrities, these scans are a chance to make money for their families post mortem, extend their legacy -- and even, in some strange way, preserve their youth. Visual-effects company Digital Domain -- which has worked on major pictures like Avengers: Infinity War and Ready Player One -- has also taken on individual celebrities as clients, though it hasn't publicized the service. "We haven't, you know, taken out any ads in newspapers to 'Save your likeness,'" says Darren Hendler, director of the firm's Digital Humans Group. The suite of services that the company offers actors includes a range of different scans to capture their famous faces from every conceivable angle -- making it simpler to re-create them in the future. Using hundreds of custom LED lights arranged in a sphere, numerous images can be recorded in seconds capturing what the person's face looks like lit from every angle -- and right down to the pores.
The next step will be digital actors, created from scratch. These don't age at all, do exactly what you want, don't act like divas and will work for peanuts.
who owns the rights to the digitization?
I'd imagine "forward looking" studios including their ownership in contracts to the point where actors don't own their own faces.
The next step is digitizing the voices...
So now you can have anyone from any time do any thing for your ammusement.
Going to be lots of Wookie Porn!
The film industry continues to tighten its grip on its assets, refusing to ever let them go. Trademarks will never expire. Actors will never expire. Nothing will slip from the industry's fingers into the public domain, or off this mortal coil. The long-deceased continue to act in films for all eternity. Their descendants ask when they'll be allowed to rest in peace. They demand the spirit of their long-buried grandfather be allowed to stop being paraded in sequel after inferior sequel, layering shame on their once respected career. Every film is now its own weekend at Bernie's, every summer comedy a macabre sideshow of all the actors whose likeness the studio has purchased. The family begs an end. Stop putting their dead Oscar and Emmy winning father in American Pie sequels. The industry executive laugh. The family has no claim. The actor is intellectual property. They belong to the industry. Forever.
The Congress with Robin Wright. It's part of the storyline that she gets scanned so she doesn't have to act again.
I am not sure it will be so simple. People choose the movie they will watch based in part on the actors in the movie. Think of the actors' salaries as a promotional expense.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I remember watching Tron: Legacy and the "young-ified" Jeff Bridges looked creepy and fake.
Then the first Ant-Man had a "young-ified" Michael Douglas. It was much better, but still looked "off"
Then the latest Ant-Man -- again, had a "young-ified" Micheal Douglas. The only "odd thing" about it was how good it looked. Knowing how he actually looks today made it difficult to look at him on-screen "young-ified". It was almost perfect.
We're talking about a short space of time for this improvement. Now imagine movies like Forrest Gump with better "high school" looking Gump -- and "college" looking Gump. One who looks more like the age their supposed to be -- and not just the actor with makeup and period clothes.
Also, it would be a good "insurance" policy for filming projects -- in case an actor dies ore becomes incapacitated during filming they can finish the "job" they signed on to.
Creating new material from dead actors? I'm very uncomfortable with. Even if we make it illegal we'll still see it. Hell, I can spend $20 for a MTG Black Lotus forgery that's nearly impossible to tell from the real thing (worth a few grand at least) from somewhere in China.