The development of artificial intelligence combined with digital effects is changing the way we design a commercial cinema. Especially in the realm of big business franchises. And in an industry immersed in the desire to continue seeing the iconic characters of always, AI allows them to be recreated in their youth or, worse, resurrected to make brief appearances that provoke the grandiloquent applause supporters. But the question of the regulation of this intellectual property still appears to be a legal desert which has led a hot spot in the last major Hollywood actors’ strike and in cases of unauthorized commercial exploitation of stars of the stature of Tom Hanks or Scarlett Johansson. The great debate judicial and media has now caught up with Disney, as the company has been sued by the “digital resurrection” of the late actor Peter Cushing in the Star Wars prequel, RogueOne.
Peter Cushing was one of the first cases of facial re-creation in cinema. The British actor, who died in 1994, played to the big bad Moff Tarkin In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hoperemaining over time as a legendary character within the universe created by George Lucas, despite losing his life during the destruction of the first Death Star. But of course, in its desire to revisit the past of the sagas, the intellectual property owned by Disney thought it was convenient resurrect him and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) for the famous RogueOne. A film that planted the seed of the Resistance and gave birth to all the events that occurred in the original 1977 film. In the same way, this recreation also inspired a controversial trend within the Mecca of cinema that would eventually grow. generate other recreations through technology. As is the case with Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian . Thus, in recent years, we have been able to witness a rejuvenation of actors such as Harrison Ford In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Robert Downey Jr. In Iron Man 3 or Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino for The Irish.
The difference is that all of these performers were alive to give their consent to said facial reconstruction. But when it happens to someone who cannot give consentthe legal vacuum and the claims of family members and friends take on a particularly complex aspect. Of course, there are exceptions such as the appearance of Ian Holm in the role of the android Ash in the recent Alien: RomulusA return that had the approval of the family.
The motivation to cross the moral line through digital effects is only subject to fan service. However, this didn’t help one of Peter Cushing’s best friends, who eventually denounced the mouse house.
Was Peter Cushing’s image paid for?
If it had been up to Disney, the company would not have paid a single dollar for the short portrayal of the franchise’s anthology villain. In fact, the Bob Iger-led company thought that They didn’t have to pay anything to the actor’s heirs, given the nature of the initial contract and the natural particularity of the CGI. However, believing that they would avoid most of their future legal problems, the major decided to pay them 28,000 pounds to the heirs of his estate.
What they didn’t expect was that the producer Kevin Francoisa friend of Peter Cushing, has started a legal battle claiming that the deceased he never gave his permission to reproduce your face using digital effects without your express permission. Currently, the case against Lucasfilm and Kunak Heavy Industries (the label that produced Rogue One) is continuing its proceedings after the High Court in London dismissed the lawsuit for “unjust enrichment”.
According to the publication of The timesCushing signed an agreement in the early 1990s that his image could not be used without Francis’ permission. The future sentence could mark a before and an after in the exploitation of contracts on the intellectual property of the facial recreations of the artists, thus making more expensive these appearances and returns so useless for the development of the stories.
The Far Future of Star Wars
The lawsuit is just another problem for Disney’s intellectual property. Since its acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, the label’s narrative development has led more problems than joys in a community of fans that they only found in The Mandaloriana quality product from the new studio. In 2026 the film will be released The Mandalorian and Groguwhile in 2027 an as yet untitled film is planned to continue Rey’s story and in 2028, a feature film titled Star Wars: Dawn of the Jediwhich would explain the origin of the Force and the first man who began to use it as a tool.
