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| Peter Cushing is dead. Rogue One’s resurrection is a digital indignity Peter Cushing is dead. Rogue One’s resurrection is a digital indignity | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| In Cannes in May 2014 I was having supper with some colleagues when in walked Robin Williams, done up as Mrs Doubtfire. Was it really the great man? There’d been rumours of a sequel; perhaps Williams was in town anyway for the film festival and doing a little immersive research. Up close, everything looked convincing: brooch, bouffant, pinny. It was only the heavy French accent that eventually gave the game away. That and the outstretched hat for euros. | In Cannes in May 2014 I was having supper with some colleagues when in walked Robin Williams, done up as Mrs Doubtfire. Was it really the great man? There’d been rumours of a sequel; perhaps Williams was in town anyway for the film festival and doing a little immersive research. Up close, everything looked convincing: brooch, bouffant, pinny. It was only the heavy French accent that eventually gave the game away. That and the outstretched hat for euros. |
| Still, it was a fun encounter. It was less fun the following year, when Mrs D trotted in again to the same restaurant, cap in hand, nine months after Williams had killed himself. There were shudders, mixed with grudging respect at the gumption. | Still, it was a fun encounter. It was less fun the following year, when Mrs D trotted in again to the same restaurant, cap in hand, nine months after Williams had killed himself. There were shudders, mixed with grudging respect at the gumption. |
| I had a similar sensation last week, when Peter Cushing (who died in 1994) popped up in the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One. Such an appearance had been reported for more than a year, but it was still a morbid thrill to see how they’d pulled it off, particularly given the “slipper” issue. | I had a similar sensation last week, when Peter Cushing (who died in 1994) popped up in the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One. Such an appearance had been reported for more than a year, but it was still a morbid thrill to see how they’d pulled it off, particularly given the “slipper” issue. |
| Shooting the first movie back in 1977, Cushing had objected to his ill-fitting galactic imperial officer riding boots, so George Lucas let him slum about in moccasins. The resulting lack of footage of Cushing from the knees down was apparently the biggest stumbling block for this year’s CGI resurrectors. For the rest of him, they wheeled on a Holby City actor with similar cheekbones then digitally stuck old bits of face on top. | Shooting the first movie back in 1977, Cushing had objected to his ill-fitting galactic imperial officer riding boots, so George Lucas let him slum about in moccasins. The resulting lack of footage of Cushing from the knees down was apparently the biggest stumbling block for this year’s CGI resurrectors. For the rest of him, they wheeled on a Holby City actor with similar cheekbones then digitally stuck old bits of face on top. |
| Does it work? Remarkably well. Grand Moff’s dialogue doesn’t seem entirely synchronised, and that’s an alarmingly waxy pallor – but it’s a huge leap forward from the shoot-him-from-the-back technique employed in 2014’s Fast & Furious 7, when the late Paul Walker’s brothers acted as stand-ins. And, especially, the notorious 2000 episode of The Sopranos in which the late Nancy Marchand’s head, speaking fairly random lines from outtakes, was wobblily lodged on someone else’s body. | Does it work? Remarkably well. Grand Moff’s dialogue doesn’t seem entirely synchronised, and that’s an alarmingly waxy pallor – but it’s a huge leap forward from the shoot-him-from-the-back technique employed in 2014’s Fast & Furious 7, when the late Paul Walker’s brothers acted as stand-ins. And, especially, the notorious 2000 episode of The Sopranos in which the late Nancy Marchand’s head, speaking fairly random lines from outtakes, was wobblily lodged on someone else’s body. |
| Yet public reaction to the Cushing comeback has been more sceptical than I anticipated. (Sample tweet: “Mmm, girl, you must be CGI Peter Cushing because you can’t make eye contact and you’re confusing my children.”) And, much as this backlash is harsh on the techies, it’s also encouraging. Perhaps we’re witnessing the first setback for that nascent industry that aims to keep us going digitally long after we’ve snuffed it. Not just movie stars: new site eterni.me repurposes your emails and text messages so that grieving relatives can converse with a chatbot doing an algorithmically generated impression of you. | Yet public reaction to the Cushing comeback has been more sceptical than I anticipated. (Sample tweet: “Mmm, girl, you must be CGI Peter Cushing because you can’t make eye contact and you’re confusing my children.”) And, much as this backlash is harsh on the techies, it’s also encouraging. Perhaps we’re witnessing the first setback for that nascent industry that aims to keep us going digitally long after we’ve snuffed it. Not just movie stars: new site eterni.me repurposes your emails and text messages so that grieving relatives can converse with a chatbot doing an algorithmically generated impression of you. |
| Yet the reduction of the soul to regurgitated digital correspondence does not seem to me something a lot of people would like. And though Cushing’s estate approved his use in Rogue One, I’m not convinced that if I had built up a formidable acting career, I’d then want to turn in a performance I had bupkis to do with. | Yet the reduction of the soul to regurgitated digital correspondence does not seem to me something a lot of people would like. And though Cushing’s estate approved his use in Rogue One, I’m not convinced that if I had built up a formidable acting career, I’d then want to turn in a performance I had bupkis to do with. |
| The people who are actually driving this form of immortality are the living, whether to cope with their own loss or negotiate problematic plot-holes. Access to such tools will soon be devolved further. If it’s possible for loved ones to bridge the great beyond by feeding old emails into a machine, why not complete strangers with access to our Twitter feed? | The people who are actually driving this form of immortality are the living, whether to cope with their own loss or negotiate problematic plot-holes. Access to such tools will soon be devolved further. If it’s possible for loved ones to bridge the great beyond by feeding old emails into a machine, why not complete strangers with access to our Twitter feed? |
| But there’s a deeper unease too, as testified by the fact that Cushing’s comeback was so well done. This suggests the problem is not quality of execution but simple concept. Jesus aside, resurrection has been primarily employed by fiction which seeks to unsettle. The power of Christianity derives in large part from that final-reel twist. The power of a lot of horror comes from the subversion of the natural order. | But there’s a deeper unease too, as testified by the fact that Cushing’s comeback was so well done. This suggests the problem is not quality of execution but simple concept. Jesus aside, resurrection has been primarily employed by fiction which seeks to unsettle. The power of Christianity derives in large part from that final-reel twist. The power of a lot of horror comes from the subversion of the natural order. |
| The dignity of death ought to be preserved. This may require us to do what Robin Williams did and place the rights to our likeness in a trust for 25 years – by which time, hopefully, no one will want to dust us off. If Mrs Doubtfire 2 does happen, starring a version of Williams yet more convincing than that French impersonator, at least we have until 2039 to prepare ourselves. | The dignity of death ought to be preserved. This may require us to do what Robin Williams did and place the rights to our likeness in a trust for 25 years – by which time, hopefully, no one will want to dust us off. If Mrs Doubtfire 2 does happen, starring a version of Williams yet more convincing than that French impersonator, at least we have until 2039 to prepare ourselves. |