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Some (not so kind) words about Lucas by Mel Smith

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Maybe that thing about the dead actors was just a dry joke? Although it's kind of amazing that you just never can tell these days. 

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Actually I think George is really doing it.  All of the movie review and trailers sites are talking about it.

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I don't think he'd bring back Sebastian Shaw.

His computer ghost would probably kick George's arse for what he did to ROTJ.

The real world get's more and more like Caprica everyday.

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The main problem with that article is it begins with the words Daily M**l. Why the interview might be accurate, that shit rag of a newspaper would more than likely take any comment like that out of perspective.

It's already been denied anyway

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/12/george-lucas-reanimating/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wiredunderwire+%28Blog+-+The+Underwire%29&utm_content=Twitter

So please, don't take this as absolute truth, just because someone who had a bad working relationship with Lucas bad mouths him.

Your brain just makes s**t up!

A fate worse than death? Having your head digitally replaced with that of Hayden Christensen!

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Mel...never understood his appeal myself.

Even when he was in Not The Nine O'Clock News he seemed to be overdoing it.

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The Mr. Bean movie was the biggest shithole on film.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

<span> </span>

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Biggest? Personally, I'd rather watch Mr. Bean than any of the PT...

Every 27th customer will get a ball-peen hammer, free!

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Akwat Kbrana said:

Biggest? Personally, I'd rather watch Mr. Bean than any of the PT...

Redundant Akwat, was Redundant.

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TV's Frink said:

Akwat Kbrana said:

Biggest? Personally, I'd rather watch Mr. Bean than any of the PT...

Redundant Akwat, was redundant.

Unnecessary capitalization, is unnecessary. :P

Every 27th customer will get a ball-peen hammer, free!

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Akwat Kbrana said:

TV's Frink said:

Akwat Kbrana said:

Biggest? Personally, I'd rather watch Mr. Bean than any of the PT...

Redundant Akwat, was Redundant.

Unnecessary capitalization, is unnecessary. :P

It is necessary to avoid screwing up the meme. :p

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Blast, you're right. Epic fail badge for me.

Anyhoo, to get back to the topic at hand, I have a question: Was Mel Smith just BSing about GL wanting to CG dead actors into new films, was he misinformed, or was he misquoted by Jedi Insider?

(That's assuming, of course, that LFL's denial of the allegation wasn't a steaming pile of BS in and of itself...)

Every 27th customer will get a ball-peen hammer, free!

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Wow, sorry guys.  I just wanted to share what Mel said about George.  I had no idea this thread would turn into this.  :(

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Lucasfilm already denied this. It's interesting how people take Lucas bashing so far...

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Sorry Kenobius Prime if you thought I was having a go at you. What I was trying to say before I got caught up in a rant against the Daily M**l is stories like this should be taken with a grain of salt and it's always best to look at the complete story.

As I say, it's apparent Mel has bad memory's about his time working with Lucas. His comment seems to be a sly dig at Lucas, possibly a joke but more than likely just a story used to explain why he dislikes Lucas.

He tells this to a so called newspaper (who once got Shakira mixed up with Enter Shikari) who publish it. The internet jumps over the story and repeats it because it's the crazy type of thing Lucas would do (go back and alter a movie and insert CG characters). LFL denies this is happening but when it comes to LFL, that means it's not happening until they confirm it's happening so take the denial with a pinch of salt as well.

However, as we know Lucas plans to just re-release the Star Wars movies over and over again, so unless he's planning on remaking all 6 films with dead actors I can't see this happening.

Something occurred to me last night though. Back in the early 90's, when rumours about the prequels was beginning to emerge, I remember reading somewhere that Lucas planned to use images of Alec Guinness from his early movies to create a digital young Kenobi in the prequels. As I say, this was back in the early 90's when Mel Smith would have been working with Lucas on the Radioland Murders so that could be where the story comes from origonaly.

So there's my analysis of this story.

Sorry again Kenobius Prime and thanks for sharing what Mel Smith said.

Your brain just makes s**t up!

A fate worse than death? Having your head digitally replaced with that of Hayden Christensen!

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Bobby Jay said:

Something occurred to me last night though. Back in the early 90's, when rumours about the prequels was beginning to emerge, I remember reading somewhere that Lucas planned to use images of Alec Guinness from his early movies to create a digital young Kenobi in the prequels.

**Yeah I heard that too--and I read somewhere-maybe AICN that there was a rumor Lucas had done digital scans of the SW actors in the early 90s(this would have been around the time of the Abyss-Terminator 2 where such technology was being developed at ILM).

 

I think the idea is interesting and bound to happen--whether its using archival footage altered like they did with Brando for Superman Lives (if you google you can find the making of footage) or altering the features of someone to more closely resemble a famous person.

Whether such an illusion could work except in brief bits--dont know.Would be hard to get a performance out of it that didnt seem artificial or not right-especially if you are familiar with the real person's movies.

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Oh it's definitely coming. Check out the digital Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy. Not to mention the digital Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Or even the Service Merchandise commercials from the '90's that brought back Lucy and the guys from Dragnet. These are all just baby steps but we're slowly getting there.

Forum Moderator
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Yeah,  I think the only instance where this kind of think is justifiable is when making a sequel to something and an actor playing an important part in the previous film is dead (or really old ;-) .)  I really liked the use of CG Arnold in the new terminator or Marlon Brando in Superman Returns. And it is now basically the only way to make the Thrawn trilogy into a film trilogy, which I must admit, I'd love to see if someone really good was hired to adopt the books to scripts. They could use the original actors through performance capture.

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I remember how totally random it was, but the old "Conan The Barbarian" tv series in the 90s had the CGI head of Richard Burton as the god Crom.

Really weird.

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I don't see what's wrong with resuscitating dead/aged actors with digital technology. How else am I ever going to see Vincent Price lower Lady Gaga into a pot of boiling oil? 

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DuracellEnergizer said:

I don't see what's wrong with resuscitating dead/aged actors with digital technology. How else am I ever going to see Vincent Price lower Lady Gaga into a pot of boiling oil? 

I like the idea of dead actors being used in films. I would love to see a new bogart or john wayne film.  My objection is  the use of  cgi characters in  films that have already been made and  altering films  from the past.

 

Make new films to your hearts content but leave history alone.

CGI could be used for not just actors but musicians as well. I would love to see  new concerts of Elvis or Waylon Jennings or  Gram Parsons. The possibilities  are endless. 

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haljordan28 said:

I like the idea of dead actors being used in films. I would love to see a new bogart or john wayne film.

No.

haljordan28 said:

CGI could be used for not just actors but musicians as well. I would love to see  new concerts of Elvis or Waylon Jennings or  Gram Parsons. The possibilities  are endless. 

No.

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TV's Frink said:

haljordan28 said:

I like the idea of dead actors being used in films. I would love to see a new bogart or john wayne film.

No.

haljordan28 said:

CGI could be used for not just actors but musicians as well. I would love to see  new concerts of Elvis or Waylon Jennings or  Gram Parsons. The possibilities  are endless. 

No.

What Frink said.

You'd have a movie with someone who looked like Bogart or Wayne, sure, but not their voice. And if they managed to synthesize that, then not their mannerisms or their acting style. It worked with Jeff Bridges in TRON: Legacy because it was actually him acting the part, not just a digital approximation of him programmed to act like Jeff Bridges might act the part.

This gets into a whole robot vs. human thing here, lol... in short, you can make something look like someone, but you can't reproduce their personality or what makes "them".

Granted, you could make a digital actor hit their mark every time and never have a bad take, but then what you're left with is like the argument Hammond made against Wu in Jurassic Park (the book): Sure you can use technology to make the dinosaurs act the way you want them to act, but then they're not really "real" dinosaurs, are they? You start making something perfectly how you want them and you lose the personality. One of the most popular lines in The Empire Strikes Back is Ford's improvised "I know" line; you'd lose that kind of serendipity and be stuck with robotic, canned films with no life or personality.

 

Why do all my posts here turn into novels?

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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