# New technique brings amazing possibilities of casting dead actors in new films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727 "2006-07-31T16:03:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/1 "2006-07-31T16:03:09Z")
Well, there it is folks: Now we don’t need Ben Stiller to make a bad movie of the Persuaders, We can get Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, just like they were back in the day: [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115430654184321852-X1XGWWGBOK\_X0IBEphsQi8zqWiU\_20070731.html?mod=blogs](http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115430654184321852-X1XGWWGBOK_X0IBEphsQi8zqWiU_20070731.html?mod=blogs) Secondary assignment – pick a movie you’d like to make and who you’d like to star in it – there are no time limits, all actors from all time periods are available. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/2 "2006-07-31T16:05:41Z")
Roger Moore and Tony Curits are dead? ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/3 "2006-07-31T17:07:56Z")
But nobody picked them. ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/4 "2006-07-31T17:27:26Z")
I think technology like this will happen eventually, but not anytime soon to the extent that it gets hyped all the time. Remember “The Matrix Reloaded”? Remember “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”? There’s some cool stuff going on, but no reason for flesh-and-blood actors to worry about their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/5 "2006-07-31T18:22:59Z")
I’m sure **wm–** is right. Still, can we make sure nobody tells George Lucas about this? I shudder to think what he might do. I vaguely remember a passage in _Illuminatus!_ where technology like this was being used, and I always hoped I’d get to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/6 "2006-07-31T18:40:15Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Still, can we make sure nobody tells George Lucas about this? I shudder to think what he might do. When Ep I came out, I predicted that Ep III would be shot with no actors at all due to his penchant for SFX and disdain for the acting process. Of course I was wrong but I’m not the only one to wonder about that. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/7 "2006-07-31T18:41:25Z")
There is a German boardgame called _TraumFabrik_ – “Dream Factory” where part of the object is to obtain movie scripts and produce them by acquiring directors, actors and technical specialists (music, f/x, etc.). The fun part is that they use actual movies from Hollywood’s golden era, and the names of real actors and actresses of that day. So I’d like to use this new technology to realize my greatest film vision, inspired by this game: _The Ten Commandments_, starring Frank Sinatra as Moses. “Let my people go, baby!” Pharoah would be played by Jimmy Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/8 "2006-07-31T18:52:29Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > _The Ten Commandments_, starring Frank Sinatra as Moses. “Let my people go, baby!” > Pharoah would be played by Jimmy Stewart. “Why, M- Moses, your plague killed my son!” “Ring-a-ding ding, Pharoah.” ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/9 "2006-07-31T19:14:21Z")
Ever since they made the deceased Fred Astaire dance with that vacuum cleaner, this is the inevitable path of movies. Just think of all the millions you can save if you don’t have to hire actual actors and put up with their bullshit! Should be a lot of bad and eventually good stuff as a result. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/10 "2006-07-31T19:34:03Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Roger Moore and Tony Curits are dead? In terms of reprising their roles in The Persuaders they might as well be. The point is, you can have a Young John Wayne actually play the son of Old John Wayne (kindof a scary thought really). Or for example, say you cast an actor the caracter needs a child – got film of that actor as a child – bada bing bada boom – you got a kid. Need Twins – forget all that Greenscreen/split sceen jive – cast one actor, say, Young Erroll Flynn and you have both by simply “dressing” the character differently. If you haven’t looked at the video on the link I suggest you do. The closeness of the animated image to the actual image is almost imperceptable. Things are gonna get interesting from here. What if two different children from two different marriages want to be in charge of their famous parent’s digital image? Okay, so, they get custody of work done while they were living with the actor. Savvy studio’s will license the rights for the actor’s image inperpetuity allowing them to make films with that actor even after their dead. Just think, we’re only a few years away from a new Sonny Tufts film! ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/11 "2006-07-31T19:35:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Should be a lot of bad and eventually good stuff as a result. Imagine when a political candidate can manufacture photorealistic (videorealistic?) footage of a rival taking a bribe… or a wealthy defendant can manufacture evidence of someone else committing the crime… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-technique-brings-amazing-possibilities-of-casting-dead-actors-in-new-films/366727/12 "2006-07-31T19:47:53Z")
Thanks for the link. I’ve worked with normal mocap studios and I know how difficult it is to get good face and fabric data, so this is potentially very exciting. But until I see a better demo though, I’m not convinced. Curiously they always show their reconstructed meshes from the same perspective as the texture source video which makes me supect that they have problems with tearing in either the mesh or the texture (if not both). I’d be much more impressed if they showed the final model rotating while it animates. I’m also curious as to how easily the data can be extracted and applied to a different model. If they showed the data from the source woman driving a different head model I’d also be much more impressed. The technology for recreating a scene with a fixed character from a fixed camera position already exists. It’s called VIDEOTAPE. This new approach will only be useful if you can change the camera position or replace the actor with a different model … … which they haven’t demonstrated they can do yet. (Although they CLAIM that they can.) But worth keeping an eye on, definitely … .