Tarkin Returns in ‘Rogue One’ Via The Technical Wizards Over At Industrial Light & Magic

ABC’s late-night television news program called ‘Nightline’ goes behind the scenes at Lucasfilm to bring you exclusive details on the groundbreaking technology used to resurrect a deceased actor for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘. Check it out!

 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has already raked in over $823 million at the worldwide box office, and it’s going to push towards the 1 billion mark as we head into mid January. The film is flat out great Star Wars and does an excellent job at binding the first two trilogies together as well as being unique on its own. Despite positive critical reaction, the film features a controversial resurrection of the late actor Peter Cushing as Imperial officer Grand Moff Tarkin, thanks in part to the magic of motion-capture performance and ILM.

 

Nightline on ABC (via Trailers and Clips) just posted “Clayton Sandell’s, Nightline” exclusive behind-the-scenes video which aired last night on their late night television program. The new clip features the backstory of how Lucasfilm recreated and resurrected the infamous Grand Moff for the new ‘Rogue One’ spin-off film. You’ve got to see it to believe it…

 

Check it out!

 

 

 

 

May the force be with you!

 

Shout out to our “The Cantina” member JEFF for the heads-up!

 

 

+ posts

30 thoughts on “Tarkin Returns in ‘Rogue One’ Via The Technical Wizards Over At Industrial Light & Magic

  • January 5, 2017 at 3:38 pm
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    Interesting to finally have confirmation that Carrie Fisher did see her own digital recreation before she passed.

    In one of her last-ever tweets, she says she is looking for a theater showing Rogue One because Gary (her dog) has heard some of her best work is in this movie!

    Charming. To the last.

    • January 5, 2017 at 9:07 pm
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      Wow. To me, she’s royalty.

  • January 5, 2017 at 5:12 pm
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    Funny how they talk about the intricacy of mouth movements. For me this was one aspect of the CGI Tarkin that they didn’t nail correctly. More to be done. (Don’t get me wrong, it was still thrilling to watch!)

    • January 5, 2017 at 7:37 pm
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      They used Guy’s mouth with tracking dots

      • January 5, 2017 at 9:05 pm
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        Yep. But sadly, Tarkin’s mouth is still the one thing that was off for me. The technique simply needs to be developed more.

  • January 5, 2017 at 5:15 pm
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    Fascinating. I hope Lucasfilm and ILM aren’t discouraged by the negative feedback from fans and media. Was it perfect? No. But one day it’s going to be an absolutely flawless technique and I appreciate they went for it whole hog even with the uncanny valley still there. Bravo!

    • January 6, 2017 at 1:15 am
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      Great comment – agree completely!

      The same was said of Ep1 back when Lucas pushed CGI integrated with real world/models. Star Wars has a great history of pushing/breaking the envelope for f/x.

  • January 5, 2017 at 5:30 pm
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    There were two kinds of reactions to these digital effects:
    That of my sister: “Wow, Tarkin and Leia look so FAKE!”
    That of my mom: “Who did they cast to play Tarkin and Leia? They’re perfect!”

    • January 5, 2017 at 6:20 pm
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      I saw it was fake instantly too, not because I knew it had to be but you just see that it is not natural. Don’t get me wrong its very well done. Its also interesting how older people don’t see it that good because they probably are not exposed to animated stuff like video games and all that (I’m 22).

      • January 5, 2017 at 7:37 pm
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        But what video game looks as realistic as R1 Tarkin? Don’t just tell me, show me stills.

        • January 5, 2017 at 7:58 pm
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          This is not my point at all dude, my point is that if you are familiar with computer animations like video games you can more easily see that something is animated and stands out from the rest…

    • January 5, 2017 at 6:24 pm
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      I totally agree. I play games all day and view graphics, so I could tell instantly that Tarken was CG, but my parents in the theater whispered to me: “I thought he was dead!”

      At any rate, these are ground breaking effects and I expected nothing less of ILM. In a decade there will be no effect out of their reach.

  • January 5, 2017 at 8:23 pm
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    Tarkin is a long established character within the star wars universe.
    He just happens to look like Peter Cushing (yes I know).
    My point is that the two have melded, and as Star Wars continues I’d quite expect to see this more with actors who have passed or digital recreations of other characters.
    I think it’s Ok on the whole, although maybe a bit too soon to do this with the Princess, (still can’t believe she’s gone). Even though Carrie knew one day they would, she even sort of predicted it.

  • January 5, 2017 at 8:35 pm
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    CGI Tarkin was done very, very well, but was still very, very far from believable. We’re just not there yet.

    • January 5, 2017 at 10:56 pm
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      I thought the same thing the first time I saw it. For some strange reason by the 2nd time I saw it, he seemed much more convincing. Still, the voice was a bit off to me.

      • January 6, 2017 at 1:42 am
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        I agree on the 2nd time through.

    • January 6, 2017 at 9:14 am
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      Agreed… it took me out a little. But we are close…. I am eager to see avatar 2, and any facial capture in VIII. It is hard to fool us with fake humans, but aliens are a different story.

      Recently re-watch the LotR, and i love them, but some of the CGI is so dated. (trolls walking on the helms deep bridge in two towers). But that was 15 years ago… I reckon that within another 15-ish, we might finally bridge the uncanny valley gap

      But they keep pushing it, like the lip part they talk about. the more intricate subtlties they capture, the more and more it will happen. I think the mouth is still the main problem. Like with Liea, and many Tarkin scenes. Although, a couple Tarkin scenes, one in particular, were spot on perfect. Had they just shown that… i would have been “Woah….” lol

  • January 5, 2017 at 9:03 pm
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    Amazing.

  • January 5, 2017 at 9:27 pm
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    say however you want your old “movie critic” CGI-Tarkin-looked-CGI BS, I watched R1 the second time and when had the Tarkin scenes looked specifically for imperfections. The hell, the only reason I know it’s CGI is because I know for sure that Peter Cushing died and that looked like that only in 77. That CGI Tarkin is a completely perfect CG animation, such as I’ve seen only in the new planet of the apes films.

  • January 6, 2017 at 2:02 am
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    I think we can move past the “looking good or not” debate, that has been settled, even though it wasn’t perfect, it was by all means a great job by ILM. To me, the debate should be centered in the ethical and artistic implications. Is it ok to bring artists back from the grave to act in movies, paint portraits, write music or “sing live”? (Ronnie Dio’s hologram will tour this year)
    If I program a computer with all of Mozarts’ works and have it study its style, and then ask it to come with a concerto of its own, is that Mozart composing? Was this Peter Cushing acting? What do we need a particular person’s talent for if a computer can now do it all?

    • January 6, 2017 at 2:25 am
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      Peter Cushing’s “return” in Rogue One, was done with the family’s blessing. Ethically or morally, doesn’t really matter so long as the actor’s family is okay with it.

      Now, if Disney/Lucasarts had decided to recreate “Tarkin” and Cushing’s likeness, without the support of the family, one could see it as being a slippery slope in terms of Ethics.

      I doubt this will be the last time they end up recreating actors who have since passed. In the past, they’ve usually gone with prosthetics or makeup on a different actor: Now they can achieve the same results, digitally. Welcome to the Digital Age.

      • January 6, 2017 at 6:52 pm
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        I never meant disrespect for the family of the deceased, I mean for the public. I respect all art forms, from music, to writing to acting, I believe art is what truly separates us from the animals and politicians, and I believe each person possess an individual talent unique to that person. If they make a whole movie with CGI John Wayne or Peter O’Toole, whose unique talent am I seeing, John Knoll’s team, or that particular actor?

        • January 6, 2017 at 9:42 pm
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          So, how about any movie or series which depicted actors playing REAL people? John Goodman as Babe Ruth, Josh Brolin as George W. Bush etc.

          It wouldn’t be much different, if you had Goodman do the animations and voice-work for “Babe Ruth”, but make the character a CGI representation of the actual person.

  • January 6, 2017 at 9:45 am
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    Incredible voice work. Was it Stanton? If not then they should use him for Rebels when he returns.

    • January 6, 2017 at 9:46 am
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      Also I thought whoever they picked to voice/play Dr. Evazan was dead on too.

      • January 6, 2017 at 11:24 pm
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        Same here. People haven’t put a big spotlight on it, but they did a great work with the look and voice of Evazan.

  • January 6, 2017 at 4:13 pm
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    We’ve come a long long way. I can’t imagine this in ten years.

    • January 6, 2017 at 11:24 pm
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      Perfect. It’ll be perfect.

  • January 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm
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    Guy Henry should have just had a good makeup job, and digital ageing and some tweaks like Voldemort’s nose or what they did with Joseph Gordon to make him appear more like Bruce Willis in Looper because what did just looks like a video game character pasted into a live action movie.

  • January 7, 2017 at 11:32 pm
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    Loved every minute he was on screen. Very impressed with what they have done with both Tarkin and Leia.

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