T here's new competition for actors aiming to make it big in Hollywood: Thanks to computer graphics, stars from the past are about to rise from the dead to play in new feature films as if they had never passed away.
One such resurrection can already be seen in "Superman Returns," the new Bryan Singer-directed blockbuster to be released in Japan on Saturday, in which Marlon Brando is made to return from the grave to continue his performance as the Man of Steel's father, which he first performed in the original 1978 film "Superman: The Movie," starring Christopher Reeve.
CG is not only being used to reanimate the departed, however, but to also enhance the living. "X-Men: The Last Stand," set for release in Japan on Sept. 9, draws back the curtains on technology that is already transforming real actors into something like mannequins, able to be changed at a director's will. "One of the foundations of our business is confidentiality. [But] it's amazing how many touchups we do in movies and unfortunately can never talk about," says Thomas Nittman, executive producer at Lola Vfx, a California-based visual effects company that used digital rejuvenation to make Magneto (played by Ian McKellan) and Xavier (Patrick Stewart) appear 20 years younger in the opening sequence of this, the last episode of the Marvel franchise.