New Technology Allows Studios To Quickly And Cheaply Exploit Actors From Any Decade
Yesterday's NY Times looked at the next-generation motion capture technology developed by a company called Image Metrics, which promises to make the creepy, dead-eyed animation of films like The Polar Express obsolete by allowing an actor's performance, right down to the subtlest facial tic, to be mapped directly onto "any character virtual or human, living or dead." Beyond making children's entertainments somewhat less nightmarish, the potential applications of the technology seem endlessly terrifying:
"We could put Marilyn Monroe alongside Jack Nicholson, or Jack Black, or Jack White," he continued, seated in the conference room where the emoting actress and her avatar shared the screen. "If we want John Wayne to act alongside Angelina Jolie, we can do that. We can directly mimic the performance of a human being on a model. We can create new scenes for old films, or old scenes for new films. We can have one human being drive another human character." [...]
But if Image Metrics can do what it claims, the door may open wider still, to vast, uncharted territories. To some who make the movies, the possibilities may seem disturbing; to others, exciting: Why not bring back Sean Connery, circa 1971, as James Bond? Or let George Clooney star in a movie with his aunt, Rosemary; say, a repurposed "White Christmas" of 1954? Maybe we can have the actual Truman Capote on-screen, performed by an unseen actor, in the next movie version of his life.
Should the idea of mixing and matching stars across decades not prove sufficiently soul-chilling, either to SAG members or to people who don't like their cinematic history fucked with, the article ends with the suggestion that a worst-case-scenario abuse of the technology is already in process:
As for reanimating former movie stars? "That sounds terrific," said Chris deFaria, head of visual effects for Warner Brothers. "I'd love to see it." But, he added, "There are real complexities involved with that."
Undoubtedly so. But at least one former movie star thinks the ideas holds some promise. Arnold Schwarzenegger, now the governor of California, has conducted tests with Image Metrics to use his Conan the Barbarian character in political ads.
If the idea of seeing an attack ad for the upcoming gubernatorial race featuring Conan the Incumbent solemnly responding to a question from a fellow barbarian about what is best in life with, "To crush Phil Angelides, see him driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of his wife, Julie, and his daughters Megan, Christina, and Arianna," isn't enough to inspire you to fire bomb the Image Metrics offices to prevent their black magic from falling into the wrong hands, nothing will.
