Star Wars: Parts 7-9 (or will computer animation replace actors?)

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It's been a long term theory of mine that Star Wars parts 7-9 will be made entirely by computer animation/CGI what have you. I see this happening in around 10 years time, at the moment the cost would be astronomical and quite labour intensive (judging by the end credits of Blood the Last Vampire)

Do you think the state of animation will ever get to the stage where it's as real as flesh and blood? Or will their be an overwhelming sense of the synthethic?

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, judging by parts 1 and 2, even with real flesh and blood, it is still overwhelmingly synthetic.

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ba-dum-bum...

― jm (jtm), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, you see parts 1 and 2 is about refining/developing the technology, well that's the way I see it.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

judging by how shite Episode 2 was, Episodes 7-9 will be the lamest films ever made, whether by CGI or live action.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I think parts 7-9 should be where the original cast meets the new cast, and then Bill Shatner comes in and tells them all to get a life. And that he's their father.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:16 (twenty-two years ago)

It'll have to wait until George Lucas is dead: he won't make them and he's unwilling to turn the reins over to others (or else we might have had something watchable instead of AOTC).

Though he's famously not an actor's director, and would quite enjoy taking 10 years to make one of these, with every actor/extra motion captured from himself.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

To try and seriously answer your question, I find it hard to believe that CGI/etc. will ever be able to effectively replace actors due to the lack of intelligence/emotion. It would take some pretty fantastically talented programmers and some incredibally sophisticated software to be able to make it work, and it probably wouldn't work at all on a large scale (ie, more than a couple of movies) because there would inevitably have to be repetition in the acting programming and it would get old. HOWEVER, just because it can't be done effectively doesn't mean it won't be done. Not having to deal with real actors would be some directors' wet dream (Hi, George Lucas!), and they will push for this regardless of whether it works well or not.

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I would like to see more animatronics movies, like The Country Bears. That movie kicked ass.
I didn't see it of course, but I do have the soundtrack.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

CGI George Martin will make Eps 7-9 into great movies, and fascinating documents of the inner workings of the computer mind.

Check it.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Does CGI really replace actors anyway, since they are all still voiced by real people?

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe I just said George Martin. And yet, it will somehow come true.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

In parts 7-9, all of the characters should be robots, and then you'd get human actors to all act like robots (like the little girl in Small Wonder). THAT I would like to see.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

You mean V.I.C.K.I. wasn't really a robot?
But she never seems to age! Was Charles Nelson Reilly on that show, or am I thinking of that other one?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

In his own way, isn't Charles Nelson Reilly in every show?

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

There were characters in Final Fantasy that were more lifelike than characters in episodes 1 & 2 that were played by people in the flesh.

I find it odd how some actors who have given very involved & emotional performances in other movies (hullo Ewan McGregor!) managed to evoke as much emotion as a cardboard box in episodes 1 & 2.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

actors are usually less important than the screenplay and the direction, in terms of whether or not the movie sucks.
that said, the actors must a have at least some competency.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Episode 7 teaser here.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the objection that this won't happen because animation can't reproduce the intelligence and emotions of real actors. How is that a problem for Star Wars?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Deep down in your hearts does anyone really give a shit about Episodes 7 - 9?

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Deep down in your hearts does anyone really give a shit about Episodes 7 - 9?

20 years ago, with all my fucking heart. Way more than I cared about prequels.
Now, fuckit. I'd rather see Charlie's Angels 7-9.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

since when have there been real plans for Episodes 7-9 anyway - are these even written?

saw the Matrix Reloaded today - there are many scenes where Reeves, Ann-Moss and Weaving especially couldve just been entirely CGI characters, i.e. the fight scenes.

watching the 'Last Flight Of The Osiris' animatrix thing, ot actually took me 30 seconds before realising they were CGI and not real...so either i'm getting dumber (this is very possible after seeing the film and not quite getting some bits) or the technology is inching ever closer to perfect photo-realism, regardless of whether there's a lack of 'human chemistry' in the actual acting

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 22 May 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

LOS ANGELES - The Force may soon be coming to a television near you.

George Lucas is planning a live-action television series spinoff of the "Star Wars" film franchise.

Lucas told The Los Angeles Times he has "just begun work" on the series, which will not include the films' major characters Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader.

"The Skywalkers aren't in it, and it's about minor characters," Lucas told the Times on Tuesday.

Lucas wouldn't reveal details, but joked that the series would be about "the life of robots."

Lucas, 63, already has another television series in the works. Lucasfilm Animation has been working for months on the computer-animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

"Joked".

― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

six months pass...

I can sense Pixar trembling from here.

http://www.starwars.com/community/event/con/img/20080221_bg.jpg

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 05:29 (seventeen years ago)

the article on this in vanity fair a few months ago was pretty intriguing and it came up while we were watching ratatouille the other night

― akm, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 05:49 (seventeen years ago)

though i have to say that picture there doesn't give me the sense of realism that the article claimed the game does...but i guess it has more to do with tragectories and how things move than anything else

― akm, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 05:50 (seventeen years ago)

B-b-but the Clone Wars are over! We knew how it ends!

― Dr. Superman, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 06:28 (seventeen years ago)

yoda has totally sucked since he stopped being a muppet.

― pj, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 13:49 (seventeen years ago)

they should give the last 3 to some fanciful twee dude - michael gondry spike jonez etc - they could each have one maybe give part 9 to joon ho bong

gondry would no doubt bring the sweet muppet action

― jhøshea, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 13:57 (seventeen years ago)

I used to think about much more important things! I gotta regain my focus!

― jel --, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 15:29 (seventeen years ago)

They could easily have a 65 year old Han Solo running around!

― jel --, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 15:29 (seventeen years ago)

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