Screening a newer movie tonight, I asked myself one question. Should someone dead be digitally placed in a movie? I lean against it but what do you think?
And because that question isnât morally complex enough already, letâs pile on it further! What if the virtual role of the dead actor/actress is that of a dead person in the movie, i.e., a ghost or some form of undead (vampire, zombie, Frankenstein-ish creation, an AI avatar based on the dead actor/actress, etc.)?
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The duality is getting thick in here? 
I have to go with a firm ânoâ on this. Death is part of the human experience, and circumventing it digitally feels like a cheaty cash grab. If our species had a track record of any kind of dominant motivation besides money, it might be worth considering, but weâre light years from that at this point.
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So then you disapproved of the Peter Cushing appearance in Rogue One (2016)?
Yeah, I think so. I marveled at the quality of the work, and it was certainly cool on some level to see him resurrected like that. My understanding is that his appearance, and maybe Carrie Fisherâs too, required some sort of clearance from their estates? Which seems like the least they could do. But idealistically I could have lived without it and the precedent it set.
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Same. A lookalike or an insinuation without actually seeing or hearing them is my druthers. Someone in another thread threw out Charles Dance as playing Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One (2016). Thatâs an inspired choice. I prefer that suspension of disbelief opposed to what they choose.
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All the scenes with Carrie Fisher were filmed before her death.
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She died 11 days after Rogue One (2016) opened nationally in the U.S. December 27th, 2016.
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Iâm generally a ânoâ on this. My one exception is when the actor dies before the movie is finished. The Crow, Gladiator, etc. brought an actor back to finish the film saving the performance they gave and allowing the film to be released. CGI wasnât used but if they did I wouldnât complain.
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No, unless the actor agreed to it before they died. I donât think people, alive or dead, should be shanghaied into movies without their consent.
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I still remember the furor over this ad. Now we have dead people resurrected in movies. I donât like it at all. Let the dead stay dead. Let their body of work speak for itself.
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Iâm a firm ânoâ on this one.
Either recast the role or write the character out.
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Addendum: as @Absynthe42 and @AndrewCrossett said, itâs a different story if the actor agreed to the project before their death.
If they didnât give such approval or already involve themselves in a project along such lines, then, again, thatâs a set-in-stone âno.â Anything that sees an actor posthumously plugged into a movie without the actorâs pre-death agreement is ghastly.
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Yeah Iâm gonna say no to this as well. Thereâs something morbid about resurrecting an actor from beyond the grave in CG for something as trivial as a movie.
Now a movie about an actor who has passed, thatâs different. Please if you havenât seen it yet go watch Ed Wood itâs a very good movie that highlights the spirit behind b-movies
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I did. I felt like it wasnât a problem with the ending of Revenge of the Sith, where we see another actor in prosthetic makeup thatâs clearly meant to portray Grand Moff Tarkin, and thatâs okay. It wasnât something that took us out of the moment like, âHEY, WAIT A MINUTE, THAT GUY ON THE BRIDGE ISNâT PETER CUSHING.â
Also, it was very distracting. Whenever Tarkin appeared in Rogue One, it took me out of the scene and left me thinking, âUmm⌠what are we doing here? Thatâs a LOT of CGI work.â
I would have been happy had Tarkin been played by James Marsters or whoever had that look. I mean, Cushingâs been deceased since 1994; I wouldnât have docked the movie any points for recasting the role accordingly.
And I say all that loving the hell out of Rogue One.
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It was a real uncanny valley situation to me too. His face moved in unnatural ways. I didnât buy it was actually Peter Cushing at all.
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Yeah, it felt like we were watching a CGI cartoon character inserted into a live-action movie (that is, pointing out that a CGI droid character didnât take me out of the action like a CGI human), and the uncanny valley aspect of it all was incredibly jarring.
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Truth; I believe the only CGI in relation to her presence in the film was to digitally de-age her so she looked like she did in the seventies when they were filming the original trilogy.
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Ah, I stand corrected. I mistook her digital de-aging as a posthumous recreation. If the person is still alive and gives permission, I have no issue with it.
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