Okay, I have to make this quick because it’s only a matter of time before Swank’s Force-fueled-radar goes off and he finds outs I’m writing this and shows up to force-choke the shit out of me.
The Brittish tabloid, The Sun, is “reporting” that George Lucas is buying up the movie rights of dead celebrities to use their likeness via CGI in future movies:
British funnyman MEL SMITH – a pal of Lucas – said the sci-fi icon planned to use computer wizardry to show dead actors alongside each other for the first time.
It could mean screen greats such as SIR ALEC GUINESS appearing with the likes of JAMES DEAN and MARILYN MONROE.
Ex-Not The Nine O’Clock News star Mel, 58, who directed Lucas’s 1994 film Radioland Murders, said Lucas was “obsessed” with computer-generated imagery.
He said: “George has been buying up the film rights to dead actors in the hope of using computer trickery to put them all together, so you’d have ORSON WELLES and BARBARA STANWYCK alongside today’s stars.”
Okay, now, before all you Star Wars fans start crying foul, let me make this clear. I’m not reporting this as hard-fact news. Here’s the thing though, this idea of using CG to resurrect dead celebrities has been floating around Hollywood for years now. Big special effects studios now have the technology that they could probably make a pretty convincing Orson Welles on the big screen – and who ownes possibly the biggest special effects studio of them all? “Just sayin’.”
This idea has probably been tossed around the most with rumors surrounding the third installment of Chris Nolan’s Batman movies. Since Heath Ledger died there have been countless rumors about Nolan and company using his CG likeness – if even briefly – to bring him back for the third movie. Nolan has continued to state how ridiculous this is and that it absolutely will not happen.
So, is George Lucas buying the movie rights to dead celebrities? Well, considering the news source we don’t know for sure – and my guess is Swank will have a comment from them by the end of the day completely debunking this. But is it completely out of the realm of possibilities? Absolutely not. Finally, would it be pretty messed up if Lucas (or anyone) were in fact doing this? In my opinion, yes. Am I finally done asking myself questions? We’ll see.