Disney did come out not too long ago and said they would not be doing a CGI Leia going forward.
At the risk of being snipped at again, the point is the future of whether or not CGI should or will be used for sudden deaths is upon us now. And if it was so wildly acceptable and worked well, maybe they wouldn’t need to say they aren’t doing it.
But it’s not new. We’ve gone through this same song and dance with Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Humphrey Bogart in Coke ads, and Audrey Hepburn in Galaxy Chocolate commercials.
Heck, one of the landmark Hollywood cases for this is Crispin Glover suing and winning his case against the studio for using a body double and makeup in Back to the Future 2 without his permission or originally getting paid.
Which is great news. I like to think they know how terrible the Tarkin and Leia looked, and they’re done with that nonsense. As for Carrie Fisher, I presume she was cast in Episode VIII, so either they finished shooting or they’re going to cut her character?
-Tom
They finished all of her scenes for VIII, but not IX. This is apparently an issue for Disney/Lucasfilm as the part she would’ve had in IX would’ve been substantial according to some of the scuttlebutt.
Great, so now we’ve been spoiled that she doesn’t die in the next movie!
I remember those chocolate ads with fake Audrey Hepburn. They were simultaneously fascinating and a bit creepy. At first I was wondering what it was that I found so familiar about the young woman on the bus, then I thought woah, they’re getting pretty good at this.
If nothing else, this movie got me to bite on Criterion’s 25-film Zatoichi boxset.
The good news for spoiler-phobes is that according to the same scuttlebutt, because the intended part in IX was so big and central to the resolution, her death is forcing them to rethink the whole story. One of the solutions mentioned would be to rewrite her XIII part so she gets written out of the story (death, leaves, whatever) then move her core stuff to another character.
Not having a CGI Leia in the next movies is certainly 99,99% down to the fact that it would simply create negative reactions/feedback (and not based on the technical quality of said CGI Leia, it would just spark discussions about the ethical side of things that Disney definitely wouldn’t want).
Plus…that was a character that could not be replaced by another character. Dumbledore was pivotal. And with death in a situation like that the audience is going to understand that the director really had no option.
Why is this a factor with Carrie Fisher but not Peter Cushing? The “too soon” effect? That she’s a pretty young girl and he’s just a creepy old man? That her character is more central to the Star Wars universe?
You’re probably right, of course, but I see no difference between CGing Tarkin and CGing Leia.
-Tom
Well we’d have to completely rethink the Bechdel Test, for starters.
Hey sweet, I’m not the only person that owns that!
This passed the $1 billion worldwide box office mark over the weekend. It is the 28th film to to do so.
So I finally actually saw the movie on Saturday. Rough thoughts:
Tarkin/ Leia were noticeable. Though I personally found the (largely contrary to consensus) Leia more striking. It didn’t bother me, no more than any CGI does. The reason Tarkin was less noticeable was probably because Peter Cushing was already a weird looking dude, so the extra uncanny just added to his already existing uncanny!
That space battle
The bureaucratic infighting was a nice touch. For both factions
The most jarring thing? No title crawl, no Williams soundtrack. The opening made me do a double take.
The change in focus, the cribbing liberally from WWII films (the infiltration to the archives in particular), it worked for me.
If this gets more Americans to realize how good Donnie Yen is, that’s a good thing in my book. He didn’t get to do much, but they gave him a few chances to shine.
Overall? I liked it. Would have to watch again to put in my rankings, but it firmly falls into the ‘better’ category. Not close to knocking off Empire, but probably a toss up with Jedi for #4. Needed more Saw Gerera in action, not just glowering from his base.
Completely agree. YES we all know the prequels had some serious faults (mainly the acting of Anakin).
But can somebody tell Red Letter Media that they are shit now. IRONY is dead and there smarmy anti Lucas rants are not clever. These days, I find it useless to nitpick comic book movies and sci fi/fantasy epics… its like pop music ‘criticism’, its all so subjective.
I can imagine these guys making movies… actually no… they don’t have a clue to be honest.
They do make movies! And they aren’t that great. But they are kind of b movies by design.
Meh, too bad there beloved Packers lost. LOL!!! They should spend an hour podcast debating why Aaron Rodgers ISN’T Favre or Brady. Just joking… Rodgers still is a great QB.
They like most comic book movies and sci fi movies. Not sure you actually watch RLM. But hey I guess they aren’t your cup of tea.