‘Digital actors could replace Hollywood stars', says Hanks
Oscar-winner Tom Hanks today said he fears Hollywood’s stars will be replaced by computer-generated actors.
The Saving Private Ryan star said he is concerned new technology could be used by film studious to replace humans with more compliant and cheaper electronic characters.
He was speaking as Hollywood prepares for the release of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a film based on the hit computer games series, which stars Aki Ross, a computer-generated actress.
Hanks said: ‘‘I am very troubled by it. But it’s coming down, man. It’s going to happen. And I’m not sure what actors can do about it.’’
Aki Ross, a pretty brunette with sparkling eyes, is being hailed by Hollywood bosses as the first truly convincing digital actor.
Andy Jones, Final Fantasy’s animation director, said: ‘‘The eyes are one of the single biggest things that make people alive.
‘‘We’re moving the eyes around to make the character seem like it’s thinking and feeling for itself. Like there’s a soul.’’
Hanks is the first of Hollywood’s A-list actors to speak of his concern at the use of digitally-animated characters instead of human stars.
But his concerns were rejected by Star Wars director George Lucas, whose cutting-edge special effects, including computer-generated Jar Jar Binks in Episode One: The Phantom Menace, helped make each of the four films a hit.
‘‘I believe that I have used more digital characters than anyone else,’’ said Lucas.
‘‘But I don’t think I would ever use the computer to create a human character. It just doesn’t work. You need actors to do that.’’
Steven Spielberg, whose current film AI stars Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment as robots, said: ‘‘It’s a non-issue.’’
One Hollywood director admitted he had used digital effects to alter an actor’s performance and said the next stage would be to have computer-generated versions of the stars.
Robert Zemeckis used digital special effects when he directed Hanks in Forest Gump, combining images of Hanks and historical events in computer-generated sequences.
He said he had digitally altered Jodie Foster’s facial expression in a scene in Contact, the film he is currently making.
Today he said: ‘‘I know Tom is worried about it.
‘‘But I’ve taken to making digital scans of all of the actors in my movies.
‘‘I know some are worried about what uses will be made of it, but think about what we could have - complete digital versions of actors at various stages in their life.’’
