This week sees the release of the seventh movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, and while the car chase-filled canon shows no sign of slowing down, this will, probably, be the last film to feature Paul Walker. The actor, whose career was really launched and continued by the semi-annual release of a new F&F film, died late in 2013, when the Porsche car his friend was driving suddenly crashed.
The tragic accident happened halfway through the shoot of Furious 7, and the film completed its production by digitally adding in a computer-generated Walker to finish the scenes in which his character, an undercover policeman wooed by chasing chassis and Vin Diesel’s gravelly voice, was essential to the plot.
This isn’t the first time that computer rendering has raised the dead on screen, nor indeed at live event – with the hip-hop star Tupac Shakur, shot dead in 1996, entertaining the crowd as a life-sized hologram at the Coachella music festival 16 years later. Audrey Hepburn’s digital avatar is currently flogging chocolate bars, while Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly graced the small screen together to sell Dior perfume last year.
One actor whose likeness we won’t be seeing any time soon is Robin Williams. The troubled actor ended his own life last year, and the news has just emerged that he bequeathed his name, image, signature, and likeness to the Windfall Foundation (a charity set up by his legal team). The Oscar-winning funnyman, beloved by audiences the world over, specifically requested the restriction of his publicity rights, meaning he won’t be belting out Friend like Me to delighted audiences on a stage at Electric Picnic till 2039.
On this evening’s The Right Hook, Phillip Molloy was live in studio with George, to talk about this week’s new releases, as well what’s worth watching on the small screen too.
Here are eight stars, just like Paul Walker, who were brought back to life with the help of special effects...
5: Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Olivier had been dead for 15 years when he was cast as the baddie in this 2004 CGI fest, with new dialogue recorded by another actor and archive footage combined to programme the villainous Dr Totenkopf.
4. Oliver Reed in Gladiator
As well as digitally resurrecting ancient Rome and the Colosseum, the British actor had to be CGI-ed after he passed away suddenly during production on the Ridley Scott Oscar-winner.
3: Peter Sellers in The Trail of the Pink Panther
Back before computers could Lazarus up beloved actors, B-roll footage worked instead. For this 1982 sequel to the Pink Panther, footage scraped from the cutting room floor of 1976’s The Pink Panther Strikes Again was used. Along with a body double with a bandaged face.
2: Nancy Marchand in The Sopranos
The actress, best known for her role as Tony’s scheming mother Livia, died in 2000, leaving the show without a resolution to one of its key storylines. The producers used CGI and existing footage to send her off with one last scene – although many think their ambition outweighed the technological abilities of the time.
1: Marlon Brando in Superman Returns
To some fans, Brando’s role as Superman’s father Jor-El is right up there with his work in The Godfather or Apocalypse Now. In 2006, director Bryan Singer tried to re-launch the franchise with a new man of steel, but the same Jor-El, using unused footage from Richard Donner’s original movies and CGI.
