
In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After They're Dead - happy-go-lucky
https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2018/03/05/590238807/in-the-future-movie-stars-may-be-performing-even-after-their-dead
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spodek
More like they'll create faces and bodies that are more attractive and sell
more tickets than people they'd need to pay.

And they'll create algorithms to animate emotions more accurately and
creatively so they won't need living actors on which to paste the simulations.

Or maybe each viewer can choose which face and body they see, at least on home
viewing, and software can put on the likeness you want each time.

Why would they depend on people if they can simulate more attractive and
expressive?

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hliyan
Perhaps that is as it should be. Perhaps it will help even out celebrities'
contribution to the asymmetric distribution of power and influence we're
experiencing in the world today.

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twostoned
This is an interesting comment. I don't disagree with the statement that there
is 'asymmetric distribution of power and influence... in the world today' but
am interested to hear more about why you think celebrities contribute to this.

My own world-view doesn't account for much celebrity contribution, apparently.

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hliyan
Obviously my personal opinion, but since you asked:

1\. Celebrities receive preferential treatment within the legal and
bureaucratic system

2\. Celebrities often have both public appeal and wealth -- two important
ingredients for wielding political influence

3\. Less importantly, celebrities absorb a high proportion of media attention
compared to issues of importance

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edent
I can recommend the movie "The Congress" \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_\(2013_film\))
\- it deals with an actress who sells off the right to her digital likeness.

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gambiting
Well, some of it does. Then the rest is a trippy psychodelic dream
about....something.

But, at least in theory, it's based on a book by Stanislaw Lem under the same
title - and I can certainly recommend that one(I can recommend all of his
books, to be honest).

~~~
bsenftner
That "something" is the pharmaceutical companies and Hollywood studios
colluding with the government to create a synthetic reality where everyone can
"be a star" as long as they stay on the free government drugs.

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iMark
In the future we may see likenesses of actors perform again after they're
dead.

That's such an important distinction. It's true that an actor's appearance is
one of their most memorable traits, but its not the sum of their
accomplishments. Acting is a skill.

I'm not and never have been an actor, but I was impressed with Wil Wheaton,
when he detailed on his blog how he prepared for auditions, the choices he
would make about how to approach a particular scene. That level of thought,
and experience will be lost forever when an actor dies.

With technology, we may see the likeness of a particular actor again, but
we'll never again see their particular like.

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giancarlostoro
Well it's also about characters which are portrayed by the actors, sometimes
just replacing an actor is kind of invasive and almost an injustice to the
fans despite circumstances. I do agree with you, some actors you truly cannot
replace.

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rangibaby
Spartacus is a TV show that did it respectfully and sucessfully IMO. Do you
have an example of a show or movie where it was a complete disaster?

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giancarlostoro
Not off the top of my head, I'm just thinking of some of the crazy fan bases I
see where they freak out when a character is killed off, I can't imagine if an
actor / actress is replaced. Maybe indirectly Doctor Who is a sort of example?
Some people don't like some Doctors while they like other Doctors, or they
only liked x Doctor.

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dsr_
More to the point, contracts need to be written so that the likeness of an
actor remains in their control -- or else movie stars will be "performing"
while still alive, and not being compensated.

This is akin to a book contract not defining "out of print". First we'll need
contracts, then maybe we'll get laws.

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electric_sheep
Surely there must already exist some legal protections? I seem to recall
certain professional (football? basketball?) players successfully suing EA
Games over unauthorized use of their likeness.

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5555624
It was NCAA athletes that sued EA games.
([https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/ea...](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/ea-
sports-settle-lawsuit-over-using-college-athletes-its-video-games/310522/))

~~~
bsenftner
The distinction is it was NCAA as a whole, acting as a single legal entity.
The individual athletes were/are powerless against the wealth EA can throw at
their legal team.

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5555624
>Essentially each player who has appeared in the football and basketball games
marketed by EA in the last decade -- approximately 125,000 men -- are eligible
for settlement money. ([https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ea-
sports-se...](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ea-sports-
settles-suits-thousands-of-players-eligible-for-money/))

In this case, it was clearly not the NCAA as a whole. The NCAA was against the
case because it would mean athletes being paid.

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Vaskivo
Cool. One of the sci-fi things I really want to see is NEal Sephenson's
Ractives, from The Diamond Age:

 _A term (short for "interactive") used by Neal Stephenson to describe a form
of elite interactive entertainment, in which a live human performer (a
"'ractor") working from a computer-provided script, improvises in real-time
with paying customers, over a virtual reality network. This imaginary genre, a
cross between improvisational theatre, interactive fiction, and mass-
entertainment such as TV, features prominently in Stephenson's novel The
Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer._ [0]

[0]:
[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Ractive](http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Ractive)

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oceanghost
I personally am trying to build the primer. :-)

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5555624
Interestingly, although the title talks about "performing after they're dead,"
it opens with the example of Sean Young, who is still alive. That's the other
aspect of this technology, continuing roles as actor's age. Arnold
Shwarzenegger could continue to crank out Terminator films, looking no
different than the first film. Harrison Ford could continue to play Indiana
Jones. Why not let the studios use your likeness as you get too old to play
the part or play all of the scenes>

I'd be worried about greedy estates, too; licensing the actor's likeness.

~~~
taneq
It's already started, Arnie's recent Terminator appearance(s?) was pure CGI.

~~~
rangibaby
In both cases “Arnie” was quickly blown off the endoskeleton revealing the
robot underneath.

“Peter Cushing” had a substantial role in a recent Star Wars film. I’m still
not sure how I feel about it.

~~~
taneq
The technique behind deepfakes will rapidly improve the quality of CGI actor
re-skins. One of the early (safe-for-work) demonstrations was a recreation of
young Princess Leia's scenes in Rogue One, which was arguably higher quality
than the film studio's best efforts despite being the work of a lone hobbyist.

Completely fabricating an actor in CGI will still look weird, but using a
stunt double / character actor and transferring a big-name actor's appearance
onto them is rapidly becoming faster and cheaper.

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monkeynotes
There is no doubt about this becoming a reality, it's already a reality as
others have pointed out.

What is interesting is that people don't really grok how close to a reality
crash we as humans are. What I mean by this is our ability to sense the real
world accurately is becoming more and more degraded as our ability to augment
reality grows.

I heard this as an analogy somewhere: imagine a rudimentary self driving car
approaching the brow of a hill when it crashes with a semi truck.
Investigators try to figure out why. From the data the car logged they find
that the car's sensors did not see the truck trailer because it was the same
colour as the sky, so it just kept going.

Humans are persistently working on fooling our senses to the point where we
can't distinguish what is traditional physical consensus reality and what is
generated relative/personal reality. We are striving toward the goal where our
imagined worlds are indistinguishable from the outside world, and _when_ we
achieve this we will be dealing with a profound reality collision.

Not knowing, and not being able to know, if you are interacting with a real
human, or what it really means to be a 'real' human is going to be something I
don't think anyone is ready to deal with. Forget the post-truth nature of
today's society conjured up by data-overload and attention deficit, tomorrow's
world will be post-reality. Crazy times ahead of us.

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fsiefken
I'd love to see a captain Kirk, Spock or McCoy again digitally tacked on
actors who really know how to act at the character. While not the same I
really liked the cross-overs like Generations, Relics or Unification. Perhaps
they can or will make an appearance in Star Trek Discovery. As William Shatner
is still living, he could act the same way as the actress who acted Rachel in
the new Bladerunner. Who is the better Kirk, the Kirk alternate Chris Pine or
the digitally recreated Kirk played by Shatner?

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vadimberman
Like Philip Seymour Hoffman in the last part of Hunger Games?

[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/17/philip-
seymour-...](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/17/philip-seymour-
hoffman-hunger-games-mockingjay-2-paul-walker)

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melling
Yeah, I think I knew this 30 years ago...

Something more interesting to think about is how anyone could become a movie
star.

[http://h4labs.org/in-the-future-anyone-can-become-a-movie-
st...](http://h4labs.org/in-the-future-anyone-can-become-a-movie-star/)

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lb1lf
Things were a lot simpler back in the day.

When Bela Lugosi died during filming of 'Plan 9 from outer space', Ed Wood
simply had some other actor step in for him, even though there's no likeness
whatsoever. (Then again, who looked like Bela Lugosi except Bela Lugosi...)

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sotojuan
Did other directors at the time also do this? I wouldn't consider what Wood
did to be a good indicator of the industry in general.

~~~
lou1306
Not "at the time", but Terry Gilliam did this in _The Imaginarium of Dr.
Parnassus_ after Heath Ledger's death.

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andreofthecape
The movie Simone
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film)is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_\(2002_film\)is)
about a producer that invented a digital actress.

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bitL
Or the future is more like in Japan, where Hatsune Miku, "Future Sound", a
Vocaloid-based anime hologram is selling out concerts, and has more followers
than "regular humans". The fans like lack of drama as well.

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inanutshellus
I suspect these models will actually be used for extremely mundane "acting"
gigs like commercials hocking falafel in Memphis TN or being a smartphone
personal assistant, rather than the aspired A-list movies.

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d--b
Well, as the article says it's not the future at all, it's already there...
It's neither surprising nor is it a problem. Movies are about making images,
it's all fake anyways...

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mikeash
I find it strange how the headline says “in the future” and “may,” when this
is already happening and the article thoroughly discusses that.

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EGreg
Why movie stars?

The stars themselves are the product of scarcity.

You could just remix anything with anything. Just like Wikipedia.

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yters
There was the whole Tupac ghost concert thing. Kinda creepy.

