Check Out How General Tarkin Was Achieved for… by filmjunkee
Many of us were stunned when we one to see Rogue one: A Star Wars Story, and Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin showed up on the big screen. Of course Cushing has been dead for quite awhile, but the magical artists over at ILM brought him back to life by using actor, Guy Henry, and some awesome motion capture technology.
There was some controversy surrounding the idea of bringing back Tarkin, but it seems that is was okay with his family, so everyone should shut up about all that. Here’s some quotes from ILM chief creative officer John Knoll:
If he’s not in the movie, we’re going to have to explain why he’s not in the movie. This is kind of his thing.
When Peter Cushing makes an ‘aah’ sound, he doesn’t move his upper lip. He only opens his jaw about halfway, and makes this square shape with his lower lip, that exposes his lower teeth. Realism trumped likeness.
This was done for very solid and defendable story reasons. This is a character that is very important to telling this kind of story. It is extremely labor-intensive and expensive to do. I don’t imagine anybody engaging in this kind of thing in a casual manner. We’re not planning on doing this digital re-creation extensively from now on. It just made sense for this particular movie.
