Krell’s Korner is a column about the people, events, and deals that shape the entertainment, arts, and sports industries.
Here’s Looking at You, Kid…or Maybe Someone Else: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Hollywood
Hooray for Hollywood!
Rick Blaine toasting Ilsa Lund with the phrase “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Henry Drummond exclaiming to Matthew Harrison Brady, “God speaks to Brady and Brady tells the world!”
Fred Gailey using facts about the United States Post Office to prove that his client, the self-proclaimed Kris Kringle, is the one and only Santa Claus.
These scenes from “Casablanca,” “Inherit the Wind,” and “Miracle on 34th Street” are among the most famous in movie history. Now, imagine replacing the actors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) may hold the key someday.
If you put Cary Grant’s films, TV appearances, and interviews into AI software and then factor them with Humphrey Bogart’s role in “Casablanca,” you might be able to see how the star of “The Philadelphia Story,” “North by Northwest,” and “Operation Petticoat” will handle crooked Captain Renault, courageous Victor Laszlo, and sadistic Major Strasser.
Who’s your favorite actress? Is she Marilyn Monroe, Lee Remick, or Elizabeth Taylor as Ilsa?
Jimmy Stewart and Marlon Brando could one day take the place of Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in “Inherit the Wind.” George Clooney and Julia Roberts have teamed up before, so why not put their younger facsimiles together for “Miracle on 34th Street” to replace John Payne and Maureen O’Hara?
Hollywood lore tells us that some of our favorite films were supposed to star other actors. Gwyneth Paltrow turned down Kate Winslet’s role in “Titanic.” Anthony Michael Hall was offered to be the title character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Debra Winger had dibs on the role of Dottie, which ultimately went to Geena Davis, in “A League of Their Own.”1 John Travolta instead of Richard Gere in “American Gigolo;” Halle Berry instead of Sandra Bullock in “Speed;” and Rachel McAdams instead of Anne Hathaway in “The Devil Wears Prada” also provided great fodder for talk show interviews about missed opportunities and potential new revenue streams for studios.2
Thanks to technology, we may be able to cast these actors as the directors once envisioned. Although we are not there yet, the advances of AI and deep fakes certainly prompt wonder at the possibility of a world where one could, in fact, recast movies.
Further, new screenplays can be produced using a dead actor’s likeness. “I can tell you that there is discussions [sic] going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property,” says two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks. “What is a bonafide possibility right now is—if I wanted to—I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32-years-old from now until kingdom come.”3
Indeed, AI presents an array of thorny legal issues for movie studios, entertainment lawyers, and talent.
Copyrights
First, the validity of the movie’s copyright must be determined. Anything in the public domain would be fair game, so studios will want to do a stem-to-stern copyright analysis of their most valuable films. If the copyright is valid, then the next determination is whether there are additional parties that have different claims.
Remake and Sequel Rights
Putting an AI-generated actor into a copyrighted movie will likely be classified as a remake. A valid copyright to a movie is one thing, but the right to remake that movie is quite another. As remake rights are not always held by the studios, lawyers for the major studios will need to go back to the original production agreements and any subsequent ones to ensure that remake—and sequel—rights are locked up and, if not, then consider striking a deal with the rights holder(s) so that the iconic movies in the portfolio are available.
Regarding sequels, there may be a clause promising the lead actor in the first film a right of first refusal. “Die Hard” presents an example. Roderick Thorp wrote the 1966 novel “The Detective” and Frank Sinatra played the lead role in the 1968 movie. Sinatra’s contract gave him the right to star in a sequel. Thorp’s 1979 novel “Nothing Lasts Forever” was a sequel novel that producers wanted to turn into “Die Hard.” Under the contract, Sinatra had to be offered the role of John McClane. Sinatra declined; Bruce Willis accepted and starred in four “Die Hard” sequels.4
Given Willis’s recent diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, there will not be another in the successful series starring him. The last two “Die Hard” movies featured McClane’s son and daughter. In the stories, McClane is still divorced from his wife. Could we perhaps see a fifth “Die Hard” sequel using AI for Willis’s likeness where they reconcile?
Right of Publicity
The right of publicity for deceased actors is most likely held by their estates or heirs. Unions will have a field day sorting out issues regarding license fees and residuals, plus concerns about how the images of replacement actors will be used in advertising and merchandising. For example, if collectibles—new movie posters, for example—will be created with likenesses of the replacement actors, then their estates and heirs will likely want to be consulted and compensated.
Living Actors
In the future, actors may be able to license their digitally created likenesses for new films if they do not want to take on the physical demands of a role or the film will be shot for several months on location and away from their families.
Moral Rights
The concept of moral rights is stronger in Europe than the United States, but still prominent among the filmmaking community. Film historians and filmmakers may complain about AI, as they did in the 1980s when colorization hit Hollywood. Colorization turned out to be more a novelty than a mainstay, but AI has a potentially deeper entrenchment.
Coda
Classic film fans look at this new technology askance, some with horror. They would prefer to let what happened in Hollywood’s Golden Age stay there. However, the future is coming, whether we like it or not. Show business is a business, after all. Movie studios are slow to embrace new technology until they figure out how it will strengthen their bottom lines and profit margins. This paradigm happened with TV in the 1950s, home video in the 1970s, and streaming in the 2010s.
It might not happen in our lifetime, but the day is surely coming when film buffs can debate about who performed better in a famous role simply by technology allowing them to select their favorite actors.
David Krell is the author of Do You Believe in Magic? Baseball and America in the Groundbreaking Year of 1966 and 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK.
Endnotes
