WITHOUT GETTING PLASTERED TARKIN MAY NEVER HAVE RETURNED PLUS A HAMMER GLAMOUR BIRTHDAY!

THINK ABOUT IT! This #THROWBACK THURSDAY post at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today, has prompted some memories. Make up artist, the late STUART FREEBORN was responsible among many other excellent creations, like the appearnce  #STARWARS YODA, made the prosthetic giant EYE for Cushing Book Store character in the 1984 film, 'Top Secret'. The practice of getting an actor to come into the workshop, and have his ENTIRE face in latex rubber or plaster, was common practice back in the day. Hammer make up artist, Roy Ashton had a whole collection of actors and actresses faces and heads, that he used to produce the latex attachments of some of the studios, best monsters and creatures! 

I GUESS, Freeborn would never have guessed that HIS plaster face of Peter Cushing would go on to be quite central and MAJOR and contentious step in the creation of the CGI Grand Moff Tarkin in the film, 'ROGUE ONE'. FX creators Industrial Light and Magic, found there was little on file, of actual helpful and accurate reference material on Cushing's features and face. A mass of artwork, but only Freeborn's plaster head, could provide the measurements and dimensions that were needed, along with footage of Peter Cushing's performance on the big screen as Tarkin in 'Star Wars: A New Hope, from 1977, to make the CGI possible. The role of the Book Store Owner, was a small guest role and one that Cushing could have easily have passed on. A fact no doubt, that could have effected the potential of making Tarkin's return, along with Guy Henry's assistance . .  a non starter! 

TODAY WE ALSO MARK the birthday of Stephanie Beacham. Beacham has had a very full career on stage, screen and television. Star of tv's 'Tenko', 'The Colbys' 'Dynasty' 'Bad Girls' and 'SeaQuest'... she has also slipped in an episode of 'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'. Her Peter Cushing connection links to two films, 'Dracula AD 1972' playing Jessica Van Helsing, granddaughter to Peter Cushing. and 'And Now, The Screaming Starts'... Please join us in wishing her a Happy Birthday!

STEPHANIE BEACHAM: 'My mother Joan had chicken pox when she was pregnant so I was born with no nerve endings in my right ear. I’m totally deaf in that ear and I have just 80% hearing in my left ear. I’ve never heard in stereo and where most people’s hearing is three dimensional, mine is all on the same plane. Background and foreground sounds flatten, out so a car coming down the road is as loud as a person’s voice right next to me. I was taken to a specialist when I was four. They said, ‘She’s perfectly intelligent,’ and my mother said very snappily, ‘I realise that. I know she’s intelligent, she just can’t hear’.
 

'ONE OF THE BIGGEST problems was that deafness and stupidity were often linked together because a speech defect often accompanies the deafness. I’ve never had a speech defect but I still got called ‘Deaf Steph’ at school and because I often didn’t know people were talking to me I’d walk right past them and they assumed I was snooty. In my adult life I’ve always struggled with people sitting to my right at dinner parties as I can’t hear a word and I’ve had to avoid pop concerts or noisy clubs because of my lack of nerve endings. As for my future health, I fully intend to age naturally without cosmetic surgery and there’s nothing that can be done about my saggy neck, apart from a bulldog clip. I’m convinced mental and physical flexibility is the secret to staying young and yoga provides that for me. I’m also aware that you become what you eat so I’ll continue to steer clear of fizzy drinks and too much sugar or salt." - Daily Mirror Newspaper 2107

 

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: CUSHING WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS . . .

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! OUTRAGEOUS. FUNNY. WONDERFUL. Peter Cushing would have LOVED THIS..

REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA

'I THINK YOU OVER ESTIMATE THEIR CHANCES' THAT FATAL ERROR!

Here's a GIF showing that amazing cinematic moment where Tarkin gets it wrong, and the whole lot goes up! It looked great in the 1977 original release and was enhanced further to give us an even better 'bang for our buck' with the re-release with addition effects and enhancements with Lucas's re-release of the film.

You would have to be living in a cave, not to know that we are just days away from the release of the long awaited release new of the continuing saga that is Star Wars. 'The Force Awakens', which brings back many of the original 1977 cast members is going to be a smash. And the fans love it!  Unfortunately for us, Peter Cushing's character, Grand Moff Tarkin, as we see in the GIF above, bit the dust, in style, when the Death Star exploded in the climax of 'Star Wars' in 1977. But, there maybe hope...

Back in  August 22nd this year 2015, a UK newspaper 'The Mail On Sunday' reported a 'leak of information', that started a viral stampede of posts. It printed a story that the team shooting the ROGUE ONE Star Wars film at Pinewood studios, were busy working on making a 'CGI' casting of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin to be included in the film. Reporter, Caroline Graham wrote that the 'special effects teams are busy trying to find raw unused footage of Peter Cushing's 'legs to add to this new CGI footage'! That and several inaccuracies about certain basic facts surrounding the Star Wars saga though, made many, smell a rat!

Just about every tabloid in the UK followed the 'Mail On  Sunday' lead and  reported the story. On the net, trusted movie news websites took up the story to create a viral story.

There could be the smallest grain of fact about a CGI Peter Cushing appearing in ROGUE ONE, I for one certainly hope it's true. But Graham was working with what appears to have been no more than a hint, a rumour and in trying to build a bigger story, expanded the piece with a sprinkling of some 'Star Wars detail', that she hoped would add a little more creditability... but reporting that Peter Cushing had a 'gravel voice' was the tell tale sign of someone who was cutting and pasting, and had no idea Peter Cushing was, let alone seen a Star Wars film! For the next few days, just about every other UK tabloid newspapers covered the story.

BELOW how the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Page and Website reported the story at the time:

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. - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/news-rogue-wars-to-feature-digitally.html#sthash.bmvQraD4.dpuf

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.'
 

It seems strange that, effects teams would spend time sifting through footage to find shots of Peter Cushing's legs. We have seen from previous Star Wars films, that whole cities and characters can now be created in the CGI department. Why would they need footage of Peter Cushing at all? When we originally posted this story, the idea of a CGI Peter Cushing was met with mixed reactions and comments, from 'grave robbing' and 'disrespectful to the memory of Cushing' to suggestions of recasting. Whatever the real story is behind this, I guess we will have to wait until the release of ROGUE ONE in December 2016.

I think Peter Cushing would have chuckled at this one. You have to admit, it's an interesting concept. It's just a shame that the newspaper couldn't have done a little more homework. As for Cushing's legs, that was something that  was never going to stick.

Before this went to press, if someone had told me what a great story this would make and how the newspaper thought fans would believe it, I would have replied in the words of old Grand Moff Tarkin himself , 'I think you over estimate their chances!'

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