NEWS: AS REPORTED IN MAIL ON SUNDAY TODAY : AUGUST 23RD 2015
As the grim-faced star of countless horror films including Dracula and
Dr Frankenstein, Peter Cushing raised life from beyond the grave, But
now the British actor, who died in 1994, will be raised from the dead
himself.
Cushing, star of many Hammer House of Horror movies, will
be digitally recreated in the new Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, which is
being filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire and is due to be released late next year.
In the original 1977 Star Wars, Cushing played evil Grand Moff Tarkin, commander of the Death Star and 'boss' of Darth Vader. In the new film Cushing, who died of prostate cancer aged 81, will be
painstakingly brought back to life using the latest Computer Generated
Imagery (CGI) techniques.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: 'This is one of the most complex and
costly CGI re-creations ever. Cushing is a pivotal plot line as he was
the one to create Darth Vader and there's a whole back story that will
come out.'
But the film-makers face one particularly tough task – creating Cushing's legs and feet.
When director George Lucas filmed the original Star Wars, he gave
Cushing and other Galactic Imperial officers ill-fitting leather riding
boots. Cushing complained so bitterly that Lucas let him wear slippers,
forcing cameramen to shoot from the knees up or have him stand behind
the Death Star conference table.
'They are going through hours and hours of old footage from the horror
movies to recreate his legs and feet to produce realistic movements,'
said the source. 'It is eerie to see someone who has been dead for so
long come to life on a screen.'
CGI has been used before to complete movies when actors have died during
production, including when Oliver Reed suffered a fatal heart attack
while filming Russell Crowe's Gladiator in 1999.
Story:
Caroline Graham for The Mail on Sunday
