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Actors are digitally preserving themselves to continue their careers beyond the grave
Improvements in CGI mean neither age nor death need stop some performers from working.
by
Erin Winick archive page
October 16, 2018
Photo of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin
Photo of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff TarkinStar Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (Lucasfilm, 1977)
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.
Photo of Amy Winehouse
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“It’s sort of a safe bet for the people with the money. It’s a familiar face,” says Ingvild Deila, who was scanned by Industrial Light and Magic for her role as Princess Leia in Rogue One. “We like to repeat what's worked in the past, so it’s part financial, part nostalgia.”
Read our entire interview with Deila about her experience working as a puppet for Carrie Fisher’s 19-year-old version of Leia.
Earlier this year Last Jedi visual-effects supervisor Ben Morris told Inverse that the Star Wars franchise is now scanning all its leads. Just in case. "We will always digitally scan all the lead actors in the film," says Morris. "We don't know if we're going to need them.”
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.
Digital preservation
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.
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How acting as Carrie Fisheru2019s puppet made a career for Rogue Oneu2019s Princess Leia
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.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/10/16/139747/actors-are-digitally-preserving-themselves-to-continue-their-careers-beyond-the-grave/