Digital de-aging has been around in the film industry for some time now, but its use has increased substantially as CGI technology continues to improve. Age-acceleration is also used, but winding back the clock instead is usually the more difficult feat to pull off well. What was once laughably unconvincing has now become an eerily good imitation. Instead of relying on younger actors to portray popular characters in flashback scenes, one can simply strip away the wrinkles and keep the visuals of the original actors intact. Think of a de-aged Johnny Depp for flashbacks of his character Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales or Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in the recent Dial of Destiny film, for example. Beyond that, one can digitally resurrect lost talent whether their deaths were abruptly in the midst of shooting a film or they passed away long ago (and never would’ve imagined such technology could exist). When Carrie Fisher unexpectedly passed, existing footage was apparently salvaged and cobbled together with CGI to fill in the gaps to reproduce Princess Leia for The Rise of Skywalker film. For a Dove Chocolate commercial, a likeness of deceased Hollywood icon Audrey Hepburn was used. Give some examples of films that successfully handled digital de-aging or resurrection as well as others that missed the mark. What went wrong and what went right? Before this technology was ever imagined and accessible, how did films handle the aging and deaths of actors? What does this mean for the future of the film industry, in terms of actors and production companies, etc.?
I think this is a fascinating idea. I've seen a lot of dislike around the use of this technology for 'resurrections' as you call it, with some feeling it's disrespectful, and feels a little dystopian (even in death, some cannot escape their jobs, and are puppeted without their say. A little melodramatic, but understandably so). Others are worried what it means for smaller actors - if you can just use someone's likeness, will we need real actors? Voice actors for audiobooks have expressed concerns over people using AI voices instead of more expensive voice actors, so some do worry we could end up with something similar happening in the film industry. This may be beyond the scope of a single article, but it's certainly an interesting topic. – AnnieEM10 months ago