Last spring the sensational news of Bruce Willis’ early retirement from the scene.
The reason, made public by his family, is that of an aphasia. Which, in summary, is due to a lesion of the areas of the brain responsible for processing communication. And which therefore, in practice, compromises the ability to process or understand language.
“With Bruce’s extraordinary supporters, as a family, we wanted to share the fact that our beloved Bruce has had health problems and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is affecting his cognitive abilities. As a result, and after much thought, Bruce is moving away from the career that has meant so much to him. “
Ma in a sense Bruce Willis, thanks to the deepfake, will be able to continue to be on the scene. Let’s see how.
Bruce Willis e il deepfake
The news was previewed by the Telegraph on Wednesday 28 September.
According to the UK newspaper, Bruce Willis with the deepfake will continue to be a star of the screen.
Of course, it must be said that the last part of the actor’s career was studded with participation in films not destined to go down in history. To the point that the organizers of the ruthless Razzie Awards had coined a special category for him, that of “Bruce Willis’ worst interpretation”.
But the disease that struck Willis (and for which the Razzie Awards received the award) led to his early and unexpected retirement, at only 67 years old.
However, Bruce Willis with the deepfake will have a second career, albeit entirely virtual.
Image rights transferred
Telegraph reports Willis is the first Hollywood star to sell his image rights to a deepfake company. More precisely to Deepcake, who (at least while we are writing this article) is gloating about the agreement. And on the home page of his site he is showing several images of Bruce Willis changing into the faces of other actors.
This means that through the deepfake Bruce Willis will have his digital twin. In short: his features, applied to stunts, will give the impression of seeing the hero of Pulp Fiction and Die Hard on the screen.
What is deepfake
We remember that deepfake is precisely a technique for the synthesis of images based on artificial intelligence. Using video and images (facial and bodily), deepfake creates more. Which can be used with satirical intent. Or even blackmailers (in the case of revenge porn), or for example to spread fake news.
Deepfake e cinema
There is certainly no lack of virtuous uses of deepfake, and one of the most emblematic areas of application in this sense is precisely the cinema.
In another article we told you about how deepfake is starting to be considered for the dubbing of movies. This is because, especially in Italy (also due to our excellent tradition of voice actors), we do not have the virtuous habit of watching films in the original language with subtitles (without it would be even better, but let’s not exaggerate).
This inevitably leads to a lack of harmony between the lip of a foreign actor and what the Italian voice actor is saying. The deepfake would allow you to reshape the actor’s lips to make his movements faithful to the language in which you are watching the film.
Some examples of the use of deepfake in cinema
In several films, especially the Star Wars saga, the deepfake has allowed missing actors like Carrie Fisher to “act”. While others, like Mark Hamill, have been rejuvenated.
There was no lack of controversy over the arbitrary use of images of people who obviously could not give or deny their consent.
Problem overcome by Bruce Willis, who has fully consigned his image rights to a deepfake company.
Bruce Willis and his digital “twin”
The film debut of Bruce Willis in deepfake sauce has actually already happened. Last year, in fact, the actor shot a nice commercial for a Russian telephone company. But without being present on the set: her rejuvenated features were applied to a stuntman.
And Willis liked: “I appreciated the precision with which my image was repurposed. It’s like a mini-movie of my usual action-comedy genre. A great opportunity to go back in time. With the advent of modern technology, even being in another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in filming. “