A declining actress signs, in exchange for a significant sum of money, a contract according to which a Hollywood studio will make a digital copy of her and use it as it pleases for the next 20 years for all kinds of films, and she will continue eternally young on screen.
This is the plot of the science fiction film
Congress
, by Ari Folman, which warns of the dangers of a world that is inevitably moving towards digitization.
But today that story is no longer a fictional plot.
Actor Bruce Willis (Germany, 67 years old) has just become the first alive to sell his rights to the American company Deepcake, which will have the possibility of reproducing a "digital twin" of Willis, according to the British newspaper
The Telegraph
.
With the use of
deepfake
technology , the performer has offered his likeness to be used on-screen in future projects.
More information
Next Screen: Cinema in 2024
This technology allows the image of one person to be superimposed on another.
Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is possible to create a visual and audio “twin” of someone in the videos.
Although the ability to recreate someone almost perfectly raises some ethical questions, the technology has already been used several times.
The Worldwide XR company digitally resurrected movie legend James Dean in the 2020 war drama
Finding Kack
.
It has also been used in the Star Wars universe with
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
and in the second season of
The Mandalorian .
.
And in Spain, Cruzcampo launched an advertising campaign in which the image of Lola Flores appeared in a video modified with artificial intelligence.
The singer's artificial double reproduced her mannerisms and gestures in the ad.
In 2021, Willis already gave Deepcake permission to make a cameo appearance in an advertisement for the Russian telephone service, MegaFon, without ever setting foot on a set.
In this
commercial
she allowed her face to be "digitally transplanted to another performer."
Now, the actor has officially sold the rights to his image to be "hired" by that company for future productions.
Willis recently went public with his diagnosis of aphasia, a language disorder that causes problems with reading, listening and speaking.
He and his family announced in March that he was stepping away from acting after more than four decades of movies, which was not an easy decision for the star.
The star expressed his satisfaction with this artificial intelligence in a statement: “I liked the precision with which my character came out.
It's a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre.
For me, it's a great opportunity to go back in time.
With the advent of technology, even being on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in filming.
It is a very new and interesting experience.”