Disney in court over CGI resurrection of deceased Star Wars actors
30 years after Peter Cushing's death, Disney is being sued. He was allegedly used digitally without permission as Grand Moff Tarkin in “Rogue One”.
Peter Cushing als Admiral Tarkin
(Image: StarWars.com)
Disney and Lucasfilm are being sued in the UK for resurrecting deceased actors in computer-generated versions in order to use them in new films. In the specific case, a friend of Peter Cushing, film producer Kevin Francis, and his company "Tyburn Film Productions" have taken the companies to court because they digitally portrayed Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in the Star Wars film "Rogue One", although the actor had previously spoken out against his own portrayal with the help of special effects.
Peter Cushing played Admiral Tarkin in the first War of the Stars film in 1977 and died of prostate cancer in 1994 at the age of 81. However, the character was used again in the 2016 film 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. Instead, another actor (Guy Henry) stepped in, whose face was digitally adapted afterwards to make him look like Peter Cushing as the original Grand Moff.
Plaintiff points to Cushing's refusal
This was illegal, claims Cushing's friend Francis and has sued the producers of Rogue One, as the Times of London reports. According to the lawyers representing the Tyburn film company and Francis, Cushing had already objected to such use in 1993 when it came to the production of another TV film. That project fizzled out, but the agreement with Cushing would also apply to other films, so the Star Wars producers would not have had permission to feature Cushing in Rogue One.
Videos by heise
Lucasfilm and the company "Lunak Heavy Industries", which co-produced the original trilogy, would have enriched themselves through Cushing's involvement without permission. However, Lucasfilm and Lunak countered that they had not breached the terms of the contract by using the actor digitally. Disney and Lucasfilm own the rights to Cushings Tarkin and they are part of the rights to the original Star Wars films. In addition, the producers paid Cushing's estate around 33,000 euros for the use of his appearance, reports Euronews.
Lawsuit admitted, verdict still pending
Until now, the first issue in London was whether the lawsuit against Disney and Co. could be admitted at all. Lucasfilm and Lunak wanted the case dismissed in December last year, but were rejected in court. The production companies appealed against this, but this week Tom Mitcheson, a judge at the UK Supreme Court, allowed the case to go to court.
However, Mitcheson does not see any particularly strong arguments on either side. The judge is "not convinced" that Francis will win the case, but he is also "not convinced that the case is beyond dispute to the extent necessary to grant summary judgment or dismiss the action", as the production companies Lucasfilm and Lunak claim. "In an area where the law is evolving, it's very difficult to decide where the lines are without a full factual inquiry," Mitcheson said.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externes YouTube-Video (Google Ireland Limited) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (Google Ireland Limited) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
In particular, the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) could soon change film productions significantly, to the detriment of actors and Hollywood writers. The latter already went on strike in 2023 , but this was ended thanks to AI concessions. The next step would be to replace humans with AI in film productions, as Hollywood's Ashton Kutcher has suggested. This would be cheaper than hiring writers, actors and visual effects artists.
(fds)
