Celebrities Gone

[Love Child]

Does anyone else find it weird or disturbing that celebrities that are dead are still used in movies? Is the Hollywood motto really "The show must go on?



I had a hard time watching Hunger Games Mocking Jay Part 1. It is bad enough that I honestly do not enjoy the storyline of Hunger Games anyway, it just made me sad to watch. And then to hear my friend say, "I wonder who they are going to replace Phillip Seymour Hoffman with?" I said to her, "Don't you find it disturbing that they still use him in the movie?" "Not at all" She said, "They do it all the time, and it honors them"
Not only Mocking Jay, but before the movie began the previews showed "Night at the Museum" with Robin Williams. It made me sad. I am not sure why.

It just doesn't seem right, and I want to know if I am thinking rational or not.

I am sure Hollywood stars sign some sort of clause saying, "At the time of my death, any and all footage can and will be released" or something like that. What if one would sign instead that no footage could be released after death? I am sure one has no control over such matters anyway.

 

[Pandora Spox]

They don't shoot movies in the order you view them so a lot of the time you see things from dead actors that has already been shot. I think if they don't agree to use their likeness should they die, they wouldn't get the job for the part. That's my guess.

Also if their part hasn't been shot, I think they use CGI to fill in the 'spaces'.

It doesn't bother me to see them like that. I think they would want their work to be finished and shown. It does make me curious to know if it's CGI or already recorded.

 

[Donovan]

The problem with the idea that a movie can be shelved due to unexpected death is that movies are such intricate and expensive undertakings it would be impossible to suit the needs of one without negatively affecting hundreds or thousands of others. I had a lengthy debate over this topic when Brandon Lee died during the Crow and they released it anyway. Eventually even movie people weighed in, but the upshot is this: every movie has hundreds of accessory industries attached to it. Employees whose careers will rely on the screen credit. Costars who aren't dead that invested time and effort into the film. Studio who spend millions in upfront costs for the potential reward. Theaters banking on revenue from a specific movie release. Aftermarket sales businesses like product tie ins, movie product placement deals, etc. A whole lot of money changes hands. And stopping a movie release doesn't affect the dead guy, he is still dead. But it will affect the living sometimes in major ways.

 

[Donovan]

What I find weird and disturbing is when I detect a studio quietly "using" a death as advertising to drum up box office. Hunger Games hasn't but I remember the last film Heath Ledger was in they kinda played up the 'last ever role' bit for sales, and there were at least two or three films pretending to be James Gandolfini's final role. Ghoulish grave robbery IMO.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

The studio/producers own the footage. I'm sure they feel saddened and shocked if they lose a star, but if the star completed enough footage to make a whole performance, they're going to be businesslike about their investment.

If Hoffman hadn't filmed enough of his scenes, they would have considered recasting and reshooting. Probably the same with Williams for Museum, since it's a franchise. But if they were working on some indie film at the time, the decisions might be different since their names were probably what got the movie financed in the first place.

It can be cold, but then it's the artist's chosen career, so in a way I think they'd want their work to be seen if they thought it was good.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

What I find weird and disturbing is when I detect a studio quietly "using" a death as advertising to drum up box office. Hunger Games hasn't but I remember the last film Heath Ledger was in they kinda played up the 'last ever role' bit for sales, and there were at least two or three films pretending to be James Gandolfini's final role. Ghoulish grave robbery IMO.

Yeah, that part is kind of ghoulish. I think Williams had several movies in the can when he died -- I think I've already seen trailers for two different movies that used "in his final performance" in them.

 

[CaptainWacky]

All of Robin Williams' "final" performance movies are getting terrible reviews, which makes it much sadder to me.