The Last Movie Star

By Gordon Hopkins The movie star is an endangered species.The last ever movie star has already been born. In fact, I suspect the last ever movie star is already making movies.The movie biz has been moving inexorably toward the elimination of the star. Successful movies are driven by their stars, making their ‘star power’ the gasoline that fuels the showbiz industry's engine. Unfortunately, that same power also regularly turns said stars into insufferable egomaniacs and bottomless money pits. So it was inevitable that, if a way to get rid of stars, yet still somehow make movies, ever came available, Hollywood execs would jump all over it.The means of ridding themselves of movie stars has finally fallen into the hands of movie studios, and they are going to use it.I am speaking, once again of course, about artificial intelligence (AI).Most movie stars have, until recently, been blissfully unaware of their imminent demise. Indeed, many have unwittingly assisted in their own annihilation.“The Irishman” came out in 2019. In it, an octogenarian Robert De Niro plays an old hitman. Except for those scenes in which he plays a young hitman. This was achieved through digital “de-aging,” as it is sometimes called.Except, that label, “de-aging,” is misleading. De Niro's face wasn't somehow made to look younger. Instead, a computer-generated face was superimposed over the elder actor's wrinkles. It just happened to look like a younger De Niro.But it just as easily could have looked like someone else. And that is significant. While De Niro's face may have looked young, his movements were clearly that of an old man to moviegoers, thus spoiling the illusion. Perhaps it would have made more sense to use a younger actor and just put De Niro's face over him.Not too long ago, I wrote a news story about AI being used to imitate people's voices as part of a telephone scam. Scammers will take samples of someone's voice, use AI to create a duplicate, then call that someone's gramma or grandpa and, using a convincing facsimile of their grandchild's voice, tell their grandparent, “I'm in trouble and I need money.”We, thanks to AI, can now recreate faces and voices. At what point will movie makers decide, “if I want to put young Robert De Niro in my movie, I don't need to hire Robert De Niro?”I would assume Mr. De Niro would have something to say about that, but only while he is still alive. The executors of his estate might feel differently. There are other, already deceased stars whose likenesses may already be for sale.How would you like to see a sequel to “The Maltese Falcon?” Probably not if it starred Leonardo DiCaprio. But what if it starred Humphrey Bogart? Did you know James Cain wrote a sequel to “Double Indemnity?” It didn't get made because Edward G. Robinson, who played the insurance investigator Keyes, didn't want to do it. Well, now we don't need him.What about a new “Frankenstein” movie starring Boris Karloff. Or “Dracula,” with Bela Lugosi.Robert Englund recently announced he was too old to keep playing Freddy Krueger. So what? Who needs him?It took them a while, but movie stars (and wannabe movie stars) have finally seen the writing on the wall. SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is currently on strike and a major issue for the union is AI. A big question is, is it too late? Certainly, it is too late to keep AI from developing into a major force in the entertainment industry. A bigger question is, why would movie studios to stick with a system of flesh-and-blood, expensive, demanding, egotistical, unreliable divas when they could have actors that don't require limos and trailers and makeup and Dom Pérignon, and can be turned off when they are done?

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