from the stroll-through-the-uncanny-valley dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1337
James Dean, who died in 1955, just landed a new movie role, thanks to CGI
James Dean is making his return to the big screen more than 60 years after dying in a car crash, thanks to two VFX companies.
Finding Jack is a movie set within the Vietnam-era that is "based on the existence and abandonment of more than 10,000 military dogs at the end of the Vietnam War," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dean isn't the leading role, but his performance as "Rogan" is "considered a secondary lead role," according to the Reporter. Finding Jack marks the first movie that Dean will star in since Giant in 1956, just one year after his iconic role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause.
Magic City Films, the company producing the movie, obtained the rights to Dean's image from his family. The goal is to re-create "a realistic version of James Dean," the film's directors told the Reporter. To do so, they're working with Canadian VFX studio Imagine Engine and South African VFX company MOI Worldwide. Dean's body will be fully re-created using CGI technology, and another actor will voice his lines.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday November 11 2019, @11:43AM (4 children)
because the GPU wasn't powerful enough to recreate Elvis.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Monday November 11 2019, @11:49AM (1 child)
Everyone thinks they know how Elvis looked
No one alive would be able to pick Mr Dean in a crowd
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @12:52PM
True, since he's dead for so long, his skeleton would crumble down if you try to pick him.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday November 11 2019, @01:44PM (1 child)
Fat-Elvis would take up to much storage space.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday November 11 2019, @09:57PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @01:21PM (20 children)
Black Mirror predicted it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Monday November 11 2019, @01:40PM (15 children)
Am I the only one who thinks that show is terrible? It's like someone watched all the Twilight Zone episodes and then tried to copy the idea but poorly. The writer has no idea how to end an episode.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @01:49PM (14 children)
You're just accustomed to the Twilight Zone formula which includes a cruel twist ending. Not every episode of Black Mirror follows the formula, but that doesn't make Black Mirror any less insightful about modern technology.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Monday November 11 2019, @02:28PM (13 children)
I don't know about that. I've been watching a few episodes at a time (I think I'm up to early series 3 now) and while technology plays a pretty big role in each episode, I wouldn't call it "insightful."
Black Mirror can be amusing and even engaging at times, but it's not really all that great, IMHO.
But I certainly wouldn't compare it to Twilight Zone. It's not really even the same genre.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @10:52PM (12 children)
Yes, it's trendy among old people to hate Black Mirror, and as usual, the real issue here is a generation gap. The Twilight Zone is about old technology like nuclear weapons, space travel, and airplanes. Black Mirror is about new technology like social media, video games, and drones.
Congratulations, you're old. But don't worry, there are plenty of historical episodes of The Twilight Zone you can watch about world wars and communist Nazi aliens and time travellers killing Hitler.
You're simply not the target audience for Black Mirror.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @11:16PM (4 children)
Or the quality declined when Netflix took the reins and tripled the episode count in under 2 years.
lolololololololol ok boomer
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:11AM (3 children)
Or, there are fewer episodes about politics ("The National Anthem", "The Waldo Moment") and more episodes about video games ("Playtest", "USS Callister", "Bandersnatch", "Striking Vipers") than boomers would like.
Black Mirror addresses a younger audience who want to see stories about virtual clones of dead or comatose people ("Be Right Back", "White Christmas", "San Junipero", "Black Museum", "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too") just like this real life news story about the CGI clone of a dead actor.
FYI because you'll never watch the episode, Ashley Eternal is a holographic clone of a comatose singer. Kind of like, you know, the CGI clone of a dead actor.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:43AM (1 child)
And fuck you very much for the spoiler, asshole. I haven't watched that one yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @05:09AM
Not much of a spoiler.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:39PM
That virtual clone episode was garbage. He's kept up in the attic at the end and sees his daughter on her birthday? Shut up and dance took forever to get on with the story. We all knew he was going to sell out.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:19AM (3 children)
That's amusing, given that my boomer sister in-law is the one who recommended Black Mirror to me. I am not a boomer myself either.
And it's not that I can't relate or am unused to the technologies or social issues at play in the series either. In fact, without folks like me, you wouldn't have the shit that Black Mirror sends up.
I won't make any sort of age-related comments, because it isn't age that caused you to completely misunderstand (whether intentionally or not) my point.
It's not the focus on technology or social media that makes the show underwhelming. Rather, it's the poor writing, rehashed story lines and marginal acting skills of the casts which does that.
Assuming you weren't just attempting to be a jerk by making unfounded assumptions about me, it's likely that you just have different tastes than I do. Which, by the way, I won't blame on your (lack of) intelligence or culture -- because I'm not an asshole.
All that said, get off my lawn!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:11AM (2 children)
I'm sure you personally invented social media, video games, etcetera, and I'm sure you're such an influential thought leader that you personally can steer the trend of popular culture. You have the inflated ego of Robert Daly. His hubris earned him a cruel twist ending, the kind you see in your precious twilighty show about that zone.
Just like every other whiner who whines about bad writing and bad acting, you're a narrow-minded asshole who only likes familiar things. In your opinion, bad means not exactly the same as a rose-tinted nostalgic memory of something from your treasured past.
According to shallow thinkers like you, Black Mirror is not The Twilight Zone, therefore Black Mirror is bad. Period.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:41AM (1 child)
Just a few points and I'm done, then you can continue your mental masturbation alone. Which is as it should be.
I and hundreds of thousands of other people worked (and continue to do so) to *help* create the protocols, infrastructure, libraries and ideas that made social media possible. As for video games, they existed long before I had anything to do with them, and then only to play them (infrequently, and I still do)
I don't claim to steer anything but my own life. And I never made such a claim about popular culture or anything else. I merely stated my opinion.
I can't speak to Robert Daly as I have no idea who that is and don't care to find out.
I didn't say anything positive or negative about The Twilight Zone. I merely expressed my opinion that it and Black Mirror aren't the same genre.
That's so sweet! I should buy you flowers. It occurs to me that you may be conflating me with someone else [soylentnews.org] who posted about disliking Black Mirror and made an offhand comment about the Twilight Zone in this thread.
I pointed out [soylentnews.org] that I have watched a bunch of Black Mirror and, while I didn't explicitly say it, my comment implied that I would likely continue to do so. And I will.
My thoughts and opinions about any particular piece of culture are based on that piece of culture. Sure, my previous experiences impact how I view the world, but that's true for *everyone*, yourself included.
What's more, I'm not a huge fan of The Twilight Zone either. Many of the episodes of that show are even worse than some of the Black Mirror episodes.
You appear to either be trying to pick a fight or troll me. Sorry, friend. This is all you'll get.
Feel free to respond all you like, but you've said more than I wanted to hear from you already, so you will be summarily ignored.
Pro-Tip: Opinions, unlike facts are neither right nor wrong. Opinions may be poorly constructed or not rooted in fact, and that can have a deleterious effect in the real world when those opinions change behaviors. However, liking or disliking a show doesn't and can't have such an effect.
Have a wonderful day!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @06:12AM
Sounds good to me. I'll go masturbate my brains out while I reminisce about my contributions to the protocols, infrastructure, libraries and ideas that made open source instant messaging possible. You might even use code I wrote and not even realize it, not that I care.
If someday I take a break from coding and invent time travel, I'll be sure to kill Hitler for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:53AM (1 child)
WTF is wrong with you?
Do you get residuals from the show or something that you're so rabid about it?
I watched Black Mirror and torrented the whole thing. So you don't get a nickel from from me.
Haw-Haw!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @05:50AM
I like to rage against generation gaps. Can't we of all ages get along? Why must fans of old sci-fi anthology TV series and fans of new sci-fi anthology TV series have such petty squabbles?
I pirated every episode too, but not by torrenting. Only idiots who have their heads stuck in the 2000s use torrents. Get with the times, man! It is current year 2019. Just stream the pirated video directly to your smartphone or smartTV over that HTTP protocol that NotSanguine allegedly helped create.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:20PM
I don't think so. The Twilight Zone is more about all the ways mankind can be fucked, with or without technology, with or without aliens, with or without time travel, with or without friends and associates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-lMZwRpOA4 [youtube.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @07:00AM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:29AM (2 children)
Do you happen to have a spare hundred grand laying around you want to spend on SN subscriptions? If not, please don't do that shit here. We can't currently afford to be sued even if we're 100% in the right.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Wednesday November 13 2019, @02:59PM (1 child)
Just curious, but isn't this one of those posts that you might delete? I'm all for freedom of speech, but I enjoy your site too much to have it harassed by the MPAA.
You should have also given some constructive criticism because I believe the person's heart was in the right place. Something like telling them to just recommend the show by name and recommend they get it by any means (etc).
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 13 2019, @03:34PM
If we get a DMCA notice, sure. We're not obligated to be copyright police outside that though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday November 11 2019, @01:35PM (6 children)
It would have been a more interesting story if they had not paid for any such rights.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday November 11 2019, @02:22PM (5 children)
Indeed. Exactly what rights did they purchase? And why did they think this was necessary? Does each person have a copyright on their own face? The guy has been dead for decades.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @02:29PM (4 children)
I wonder if he had to audition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @02:36PM (3 children)
He was a diversity hire.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @05:14PM (1 child)
#DeadLivesMatter
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 11 2019, @06:33PM
True indeed! Since dead people form an important demographic in election cycles.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday November 11 2019, @09:59PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @02:31PM
The Congress [wikipedia.org], except for real and they don't have to pay Dean's family all that much -- since he's dead.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gtomorrow on Monday November 11 2019, @02:55PM (8 children)
After reading the (mostly) amusing banter here, no one has even touched the question...
Why?
It's not as if James Dean's digital-or-otherwise presence is even remotely integral to the plot mentioned in TFS. It's a Vietnam-era story, roughly 10-12 years after his death. And iconic as Dean was, is he still considered as iconic today as he was during the, say, '80s? Would the movie-going public of 2019 even know who James Dean was?
Other than a perverse, necrophilic angle or a base lucrative angle on the part of the family, what's the point? Is Hollywood suffering a James Dean-type actor shortage?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday November 11 2019, @03:25PM (1 child)
Why not?
Here's what you will see in the future: virtual actors animated, rendered, and voiced using desktop/workstation grade equipment. This could involve a blend of several living/dead actors or actresses, or any living or dead individual.
Ask yourself why any particular actor gets a role. Why use Jason Statham, Morgan Freeman, Scarlett Johansson, etc.? Are these people the best for the job? The choice might be about talent or compatibility with a particular role, but it's often about building hype.
There's some speculation in TFA about the choice of Jimmy Dean. It's probably a gimmick, as you suspect. As for the movie-going public appreciating this choice, I suspect that a movie about Vietnam military dogs is going to appeal towards the nursing home crowd, so that could help. Otherwise, it is still early for this gimmick and it makes headlines each time a dead actor is resurrected.
The family has been paid for this abomination, but by looking at the deepfake and piracy 🏴☠️ trends, we can see that people will eventually be violating "dead personality rights" or whatever and uploading the results for anyone to stream or download. No sacred corpses.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by OrugTor on Monday November 11 2019, @05:41PM
"River of Gods" - Ian McDonald.
The endgame is 100% synthetic actors. You want Morgan Freeman's gravitas and Chris Pine's appeal for the part of 20-year-old Barak Obama. What to do? Cast one of your stable of synthetic actors, doesn't matter which, tweak the parameters for gravitas/appeal and the rest is just a skin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @05:21PM (2 children)
Why?
Boomer nostalgia.. Come to think of it, so is all that Marvel shit...
Can we get a CGI Reagan?
(Score: 3, Funny) by RedIsNotGreen on Monday November 11 2019, @08:10PM
CGI Reagan 2024! Let's make america great again, again!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday November 11 2019, @09:17PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAEU-Lf60LA [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday November 11 2019, @06:28PM
Somewhat cynically, I suspect they're testing the water for movies with most- or all-synthetic casts; they start with a known person so as to give it the flavor of something with integral value in and of itself; they see how the public responds to the virtual person; and if that works out, they begin to move to synthetics (and away from paying actors.)
The advantages are clear, if they can pull it off: Not only do they save a popular actor's salary, but they can make the person as handsome, beautiful, evil, etc. as they choose.
They might have to start with people miving around with animation targets to be mapped-to-other later to get that "live" feel, but I don't think it'll be too far down the road before those motions will be amalgamated into detailed enough ML form to dispense with that as well.
CGI has come a long way, and I'm pretty sure that if they can use it to make their... craft... less expensive and more flexible, they will.
--
A day without pizza is like...
Just kidding. I have no idea.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:00PM (1 child)
Actors and actresses are kinda funny. They think they should be paid for acting. With more experience, and more exposure, they demand ever more money for acting. The ghost in the machine doesn't know or care about money.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @05:58PM
If you're gonna put it like that, so is programming. It's just chaining one command after another in a logical order. Monkey work, really.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Monday November 11 2019, @03:08PM (1 child)
Sure, dogs are nice but I am sick of movies like this. Hacksaw Ridge, the Code Talkers, to some extent Hidden Figures, where the history of the united states is sanitized by recasting the minority ethnicity or animals as the hero and white guys as oblivious enforcers of a heavy handedly presented immoral status quo.
The verdict was in a long time ago about the 2nd world war, it was caused by propaganda. It is not like 'oh a little propaganda, dont worry your pretty little head, nothing bad will happen.'
No, it is our oligarchs have decided to prefer propaganda as the primary option on the plate.
I would not be as brutal in my critique if my ideas were accepted, or there were even a way to be included besides entering fake contests. But if you are involved in the making of this or any other such movie that puts the cia or a u.s. military unit into the role of saviors and victims, including Transformers, Black Panther, Avengers, and many many other crufty titles from the walmart 5 dollar bin, you should give up on being an artist entirely.
You are allowed to think because you don't know how, and this is a really embarrassing spot for an artist to be in because it is there for all to see, except of course, others like yourself, trapped in a paper bag you can't figure out how to escape.
thesesystemsarefailing.net (but especially project mockingbird and a rapist weinstein dominated hollywood)
(I wouldn't be surprised if Epstein himself made a cameo in this movie, he is not dead so he would not even need cgi, and he could be friendly to dogs so that huffpo could write an article on his media strategy to improve his image)
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday November 11 2019, @03:43PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPNyNr2Kp4w [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqNYrYUiMfg [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @03:52PM
Tugg Speedman was just WAYY better in those Scorcher movies, man...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 11 2019, @06:40PM
Kevin Bacon will forever be associated with "the six degrees".
Rick Astley will forever be associated with, to be polite, I'll say: unintended video playbacks.
Elvis will forever be almost but not quite in the building.
James Dean may forever be cast in endless movies for the next three generations of people.
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(Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:35AM (4 children)
I was born in 75, but I still recognized the coolness factor James Dean had. I'm sure there are plenty of people (probably especially on this site) that'll disagree, but obviously he did something right to have such a cult following. This reinforces that concept.
I'm downloading his three movies right now.
Long live James Dean!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:57AM
Young James Dean, some say he looks just like his father
But he could never love somebody’s daughter
Football team loved more than just the game
So he vowed to be his husband at the altar
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:05PM (1 child)
He died young. He stuck around just long enough to prove himself something of a success, then died while still young. That is part of JFK's mystique, as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:39PM
I've always said that having an untimely or tragic death early in your career is the best move you can make.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:36PM
I was born 10 years before you and I never got the Dean cult thing. In the 80's there was this nostalgia-cool thing with some of the 50's icons like Dean, Monroe, and Bogart (such as that infamous diner poster and seemingly infinite variants of it). I think it went naturally with that Reagan-era nostalgia for the simple times of the 50's where the women stayed home to keep house. My guess is that they picked Dean because he was an icon (although, like many, one whose stature grew as a result of an untimely death), and they worked out a deal with his heirs.