Computer-generated actors have, surprisingly, already hit the big screen and Im not talking about Toy Story either. It all really started with Jurassic Park and those dinosaurs, which were a lot more
Computer-generated actors have, surprisingly, already hit the big screen and Im not talking about Toy Story either. It all really started with Jurassic Park and those dinosaurs, which were a lot more convincing than grown men in rubber suits. This film proved to both the movie-going public and perhaps more importantly the Hollywood accountants, that computer-generated graphics had reached an acceptable level of realism. No surprise to learn, then, that the blockbuster epic Titanic made use of this technology and populated many crowd scenes with computer-generated extras. Both Brandon Lee in The Crow and Oliver Reed in Gladiator ended up being computer generated to some degree, having both died before filming was finished.
So why havent we had hordes of movies at the multiplex starring dead actors? Theres a simple and a complex answer, and both come down to money. The sheer cost of the technology is the simple answer. Those crowd scenes in Titanic apparently required an impressive network of 160 DEC Alpha 433s for Digital Domain to do the business. The complex answer revolves around the sticky issue of who owns a virtual representation of a dead star, or more importantly, who owns the rights to royalties received as a result of its work. Just because someone is dead, that doesnt stop them both earning money or fiercely protecting their name and image; just take a look at Elvis for the highest-profile example.
One company that thinks it has the answer is Hollywood licensing agency Global Icons. Together with its sister company, Virtual Celebrity Productions, it has been busily entering into agreements with the estates of screen legends such as Burt Lancaster, George Burns, Edward G Robinson, James Cagney, Vincent Price, Clark Gable and Bing Crosby. There have already been plenty of advertising opportunities in the US. US television viewers have already seen Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner and John Wayne triumphantly holding a bottle of beer aloft. But its the creation of digital versions of their clients, rather than the digital manipulation of existing film footage, thats likely to be the big money maker in years to come.