Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The Future for Hollywood Actors (3/4)


Actor Robin Williams died in 2014, but made sure to legally ban his image from being used for profit until 2039, in addition to terms that block him from being digitally inserted into a movie, TV show, or even a hologram. Why a hologram? Consider the holographic appearance of deceased rapper, Tupac Shakur, at Southern California's Coachella music festival in 2012. This concept isn't a new one, though—Hollywood used holography to place John Coltrane in the movie Vanilla Sky back in 2001. The rock band Gorillaz used holograms of themselves to entertain at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, and others have been displayed as holograms despite their absence. Is placing CGI of an actor in a movie any different than placing a photograph of that actor in an ad? Most would say it is, because CGI can make that actor do and say anything—it involves actions that the deceased actor never had the chance to consider or refuse. Most people would agree that using the image of a deceased actor for advertising is in bad taste. Just look at the outcry on Twitter against Cinnabon for their tweet using an image of Princess Leia (with a cinnamon roll in place of her hair bun) after her recent death; they tweeted, “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll have always have the best buns in the galaxy.” Truly tasteless.

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