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With Tuesday's tragic passing of actor and writer Carrie Fisher came a major question from fans of the Star Wars series: what will happen to the ongoing trilogy films, which (so far) feature both the original trilogy characters of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo?
Reports from Variety and Deadline have confirmed that filming of Fisher's performance in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII film wrapped earlier this year, with both articles citing unnamed sources. Deadline's report goes one further by indicating that Leia has a "larger role" in the upcoming film, and while it also mentions Fisher's real-life daughter, Billie Lourd, appearing in Episode VIII, there's no indication of how much screen time Lourd will receive or whether she and Fisher will interact meaningfully in the film. (Lourd appeared ever-so-briefly in The Force Awakens, but she has teased a larger appearance in a future film.)
Seeing as how the Star Wars and Disney teams rarely disclose plot details ahead of time, it should surprise no one that announcements or hints haven't been offered for how either Episode VIII or Episode IX will change in the wake of Fisher's passing or whether dialogue or other important content may have already been pre-recorded by any actors in the case of an emergency. That being said, Fisher had signed on for some kind of role in Episode IX. Does that mean she would have had an active role in the final leg of the new trilogy? It's hard to say; after all, Harrison Ford may very well be returning to Episode VIII, if this casting-call announcement from late 2015 is legitimate. I won't spell out my logic here, in case you avoided my spoiler warning, but with all of that information in mind, Fisher's Episode VIII performance could, er, conclude similarly to how Ford's ended in Episode VII.
In related news, Disney took out an insurance policy against Fisher's ability to complete her contract. This is a standard industry practice. Now Disney stands to get a $50,000,000 payout due to her death.
(Score: 2) by blackhawk on Wednesday January 04 2017, @03:04PM
That shouldn't really be an issue since it's not too difficult to match up the lighting used on the green screen set with that in a computer rendering. It might be harder on an actual set where reflections start to play a part in the scene.
Problem is really the uncanny valley. The Peter Cushing model seemed rushed. The skin wasn't properly rendered and it didn't even look like they used a proper facial animation capture rig or motion capture for his body movement. He seemed very stiff, like you get if he's animated by hand.
They may well have used both a facial capture rig and motion capture, but if they did, it didn't show in the final product. Artists would have had to put together his face by hand modelling as well, and that just isn't a patch on the new facial capture system in use now.
For example: http://www.3lateral.com/ [3lateral.com]