

Report: Philip Seymour Hoffman to be Digitally Recreated for Hunger Games - rmason
http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/tv/tvguide/article/Report-Philip-Seymour-Hoffman-to-be-Digitally-5214202.php

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apendleton
This kind of thing isn't at all unprecedented. Oliver Reed died in 1999 during
the production of Gladiator, and his face was digitally recreated on a body
double for a couple of scenes he hadn't yet shot, for a movie that came out 14
years ago.

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christoph
The first I can think of was "The Crow" (1994), where they digitally
composited Brandon Lee into a few scenes that hadn't been shot/finished.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109506/faq](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109506/faq)

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jonhohle
Forrest Gump, which was released two months later had a significant number of
digitally recreated deceased people, as well as the current standing president
(used without permission, iirc).

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/)

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fintler
This title is very inaccurate.

SeattlePi references the New York Post, who then references the Hollywood
Reporter, who then says nothing about Philip Seymour Hoffman being digitally
recreated for the Hunger Games.

It seems like they somehow thought he was going to be digitally recreated
based on this quote: “You can do digital things, you can have conversations
where you’re not focusing on him but the people he’s talking to."

I think they're just talking about creative camera angles and the story got
twisted as it was passed along from reporter to reporter.

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rch
Actually, this isn't a new idea, and the studio may very well pull something
like this together if they need a shot or two for continuity.

edit: see Oliver Reed reference in other comments

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jack-r-abbit
The Wanklevoss twins in The Social Network movie were played by non twins. And
the face of one (Armie Hammer) was added to the body of the other to make them
look like twins.

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rmason
Anyone remember years ago when Boopsie from Doonesbury gets herself digitally
imaged at the request of her agent?

I wonder how long it will be before deceased stars are routinely used as major
characters in movie roles? It's been done in commercials but I don't think in
any full length feature films.

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cbaleanu
Will they need to pay royalty to the family? What if they want to add a
digital Robert DeNiro without paying the real actor? Is that something one
could do?

Just trying to wrap my head around this.

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chasing
I was just poking about and found this article:
[http://www.motioncapturesociety.com/resources/articles/synth...](http://www.motioncapturesociety.com/resources/articles/synthespians/92-sky-
captain-laurence-olivier-back-from-the-dead)

Has this snippet, which (if accurate) might start to answer your DeNiro
question:

'[Copyright law professor] Mr. Beard notes that a patchwork of laws governs
the use of dead actors' images.

'"California protects the images of celebrities for 70 years after death,
which is the same as under copyright law,'' he said. "New York, on the other
hand, does not have postmortem protection. So Bogart, who died as a resident
of California, has state protection, and Cagney, who died as a domiciliary of
New York, does not."'

