
How ‘Rogue One’ Brought Back Familiar Faces - stevewilhelm
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/movies/how-rogue-one-brought-back-grand-moff-tarkin.html?_r=0
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filoeleven
There is a subplot in "The Congress" where the actress Robin Wright (of
Princess Bride fame) agrees to be digitized so that they can use her likeness
in films. Part of her contract is that she may never act again. It makes me
wonder how long it will be before we start seeing digitized actors who have
not died, and what kind of rights/residuals they will get.

It was a strange film; I enjoyed it. Fans of Philip K. Dick would do well to
watch it--it reminded me a lot of his work (though it was not based on
anything he wrote).

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lobster_johnson
It's actually supposed to be based on The Futurological Congress [1] by Dick's
contemporary Stanislaw Lem, although they changed it beyond recognition. The
only thing the book and the film have in common is that there's a congress. I
didn't enjoy the film at all, but I can recommend the novel, which is
excellent.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Futurological-Congress-Memoirs-
Ijon-T...](https://www.amazon.com/Futurological-Congress-Memoirs-Ijon-
Tichy/dp/0156340402)

~~~
filoeleven
Yes, I almost added that it was loosely based on Lem, who I have yet to read,
but when I went to confirm this on Wikipedia, I found that the director
actually stated that he used the book "more as a source of inspiration." So I
imagine going in expecting to see a faithful reproduction would be pretty
disappointing!

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lobster_johnson
If you like PKD, I think you'll like Lem. He's very different, but they have
some commonalities; they were both great, inventive conceptual thinkers with a
superbly dry sense of humour. TFC is a very dry, dark satire.

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jmcgough
I was pretty blown away by it in theaters - crazy to see Tarkin, Leia, and
Mothma, looking and sounding almost exactly as they did in in Episode 4 all
those years ago.

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bsharitt
I think quick cameos are really doable right now. Leia was fin in Rogue One,
but the more Tarkin appeared on screen, the more "off" he felt to me. The
animators definitely made it across uncanny valley and most of the way up the
other, but I think we're still a little short of the top for extended
appearances along side real people.

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binarymax
Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't know Tarkin was CGI until someone told me
several days after I'd seen the film.

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melling
Most of the people here have convinced themselves that they could tell and it
was awful. However, I bet if there was some sort of scientific comparison, a
lot fewer people would guess right.

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sssilver
My wife has never seen the original trilogy, and she exclaimed "Is he CG??"
200ms after grand moff's face was on the screen.

Come on guys, both characters were deep in the uncanny valley.

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pkroll
That may well be true... but the uncanny valley isn't the same for everyone.
Tarkin looked great to me. For the two seconds she's on screen, Leia looked
fine, if oddly happy given the situation. I'm guessing there's a LOT of
variance between people's perception of the uncanny valley.

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cyberferret
Just saw Rogue 1 last night. By my calculations, Leia's character appeared on
screen at about the same moment Carrie Fisher passed. Poignant and sad.

But related to this thread, i must admit that Tarkin's CGI character fooled me
for the first few minutes. I was so caught up in the story that it took me a
while to realise Cushing was no longer with us.

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Jarwain
I wasn't even aware that the actor wasn't with us until afterwards when
discussing the movie with friends. I noticed a weird glow but I didn't really
think about it; it amazes me how good CGI has gotten these days to be able to
portray a person without some people even noticing.

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stevesearer
I didn't see it addressed in the article, though I may have missed it, but
would the family of Peter Cushing be paid for the use of his likeness? Do you
need permission to use someone's likeness like a copyright or something?

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Fezzik
Per [1] it looks like there was an agreement between Mr. Cushing's estate and
Industrial Light & Magic. I would be surprised if this did not involve some
sort of compensation to the estate. In this day and age though, I would also
not be surprised if in some franchise contracts big studios try to get
preemptive agreements to use an actor's likeness in future films. Obviously
that was not the case here though.

[1] [http://www.slashfilm.com/grand-moff-tarkin-in-rogue-
one/](http://www.slashfilm.com/grand-moff-tarkin-in-rogue-one/)

Edited to add: for a long summary of likeness law, see:
[http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/using-name-or-likeness-
anoth...](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/using-name-or-likeness-another)

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lobster_johnson
It's interesting that of among these promotional articles and videos about the
Tarkin and Leia CGI reconstructions, there's not a single frame grab or video
clip. There's absolutely nothing on YouTube. With all the gushing about how
they managed to bring a dead actor to life, you'd think Disney would release
some clips.

(FWIW, I was among those who thought the CGI characters were awful, in an
otherwise brilliant film.)

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wazoox
Tarkin was excellently made. I'm pretty sure most people not knowing of the
trick didn't suspect anything. OTOH I've found Leia, for the few seconds she's
visible at the end, quite poorly done; in particular her lips moved in a very
unrealistic and artificial way.

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camperman
I was horribly unimpressed with the CGI versions of both Tarkin and Leia. I've
seen video games that do better. And then it hit me a few days later: modern
CGI is perfectly capable of rendering a very realistic person but the teams
are told not to, either because actors have lobbied against it or on orders
from high up.

EDIT: Y'all are blind as bats :) I saw it in IMAX 3D and it was like watching
a video game character mixed in with real people.

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nilkn
For what it's worth, my family members went into the movie not knowing ahead
of time that Tarkin was CGI, and they didn't realize he was throughout the
movie. I had to tell them after it was over.

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marcell
I didn't know about this going in, and I don't recall the details of Star Wars
well enough to know that this character was in Episode 4.

My though process was something like this: "That character seems weird...is it
CG? It can't be, that would be too weird...but something about the character
just seems off." I may be more sensitive to this than others. It was pretty
impressive, though for me still in the uncanny valley.

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dvtv75
I went in not realizing Tarkin was in it, and the moment I saw him my reaction
was "AAAAAAAH! CREEPY!" It was most impressive, but still creepy. I think... I
feel that the upper half the face wasn't quite right.

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danvoell
Thanks NYT! - "Warning: This article contains spoilers about “Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story."

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awestley
Sadly they need to use this for one more familiar face. :(

