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THE PROFESSOR ISSUE THREE OUT NOW!

Vi abbiamo presentato sovente molti progetti inerenti la figura di Peter Cushing ma, uno dei migliori è sicuramente il fumetto creato da Andrea Corbetta #theprofessor. Troverete molti accenni nel personaggio che sembra essere una via di mezzo tra Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes e il Barone Victor dei film Hammer, fin dalla prima pagina. Curato in ogni dettaglio e illustrato con grande attenzione al racconto, si rimane incollati fino all'ultima vignetta. Anche le copertine sono superbe oltre alle tavole interne. Potete trovarlo in edicola ogni due mesi.

2016 PRESENTED US with quite a few interesting developments around the career of Peter Cushing, and one of the better ones was Andrea Corbetta's excellent comic, #THEPROFESSOR. With more than just a little nod to a central character who looks and behaves like a cross between Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes and The Baron, The Professor drips in that atmosphere of gothic dread, that lovers of Hammer films will recognize right away from the turn of the first page. Beautifully detailed and illustrated, with a great twist in the tale, you never know what is coming next. Many of the panels would not look out of place, at the risk of mutilating your issue, cut out and frame on your den wall! The full-colour covers are quite superb!

The first issues of THE PROFESSOR ZERO AND ISSUE ONE are available now to buy and order. ISSUE THREE IS ON THE NEWSSTANDS NOW! Just follow THIS link: HERE!

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CUSHING AND LEE SEASON OF CLASSIC HAMMER FILMS IN WHITSTABLE!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: The Playhouse Theatre in Peter Cushing's home town of Whitstable is playing host to a season of exception Classic Cushing Chillers from yesteryears Hammer films... Peter's Hound Of The Baskervilles, kicks off the season that also takes in The Mummy and the mighty, Dracula! All three films also feature Christopher Lee too, and I'll be booking my ticket and traveling down to Whitstable, Kent for Dracula screening on the 17th! Maybe I might see you there??  

There's a special offer of £12 for the booking of all three films Details are on the poster I have shared above / below. Peter Cushing on a big screen...I am looking forward to it !

TARKIN: MAYBE CUSHING WOULD HAVE LIKED THE CGI AFTER ALL!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY After the initial wave of interest and wonder at the results of Peter Cushing's CGI Tarkin appearance in #ROGUEONE, there was a subtle turn of opinion in the press and tabloids, about the question of what Peter Cushing would have made of it all. This quote doesn't provide the answer, but it does shed some light onto his desire to have appeared in another appearance in the #STARWARS saga. What do you think? — with Peter Cushing, Grand Moff Tarkin, Rogue One and Star Wars.

 

 

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LAST WEEK, PETER WAS TREDING FOR QUITE A WHILE! #TRENDING and Mask! TWO great things making me smile today. Tarkin trending..who would have ever thought it? And discovering the plaster cast that Peter had made of his face for the make up in 'Top Secret' with Val Kilmer, was instrumental in bringing the #Tarkin effects to #RogueOne! It's a #happyfriday

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER LAST WEEK :

No performance from 2016 was met with quite the fascination of Guy Henry's turn in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — and he wasn't even one of the few actors not involved in the film's worldwide media blitz.
 

The British actor was tasked with playing Grand Moff Tarkin, with his performance capture work and visual effects wizardry helping resurrect the character played by the late Peter Cushing in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Rather than recasting the role, Industrial Light & Magic recreated Cushing's actual likeness for a performance not quite like any in film history. 

Reached by phone in Great Britain Friday, Henry spoke about the unprecedented responsibility he felt to honor Cushing ("It was genuinely frightening"), his offer to let director Gareth Edwards recast him ("I won't be offended") and speculation that the story of Carrie Fisher's Leia might continue through such technology. ("He declined to comment on Fisher, but did offer this of the technology: "I think and hope it won't be a commonplace thing.")

During the 18 months you kept this a secret, did your family know what you were doing?

The very, very closest of my family and friends — I graciously allowed them into the secret, because I think I would have gone mad otherwise. My name began to be associated with it occasionally. People would ask. At work, [the team behind the BBC One series] Holby City had to know I was doing something in it, but even my agent, when I was asked to meet Gareth Edwards, she didn't really know why. They didn't tell her. It was quite a responsibility really, and I'm glad it was kept secret right up until the very last moment.

How did Gareth Edwards and Industrial Light & Magic's John Knoll convince you this would all work out?

 
I felt I couldn't feel too responsible in the sense of the way that it looked. I had to trust John Knoll and Gareth and the team, who were convinced they could make it work. Vocally, I'm not a mimic. I'm genuinely not an impressionist. I'd be doing my very best to do my Tarkin, the rolled "r" and the voice as best I could, and Gareth would say, "OK relax on that. Just be a bit more Guy now." I had to trust that they saw something in the reel of my work that convinced them it could be the tribute to Cushing everyone wanted it to be. It was very, very frightening, in all seriousness.

Did the reshoots affect you much?

Because the story was changing all the time, I kept thinking I had finished. "The responsibility has lapsed. Thank God, I can lie down." Then they'd say, "Actually, can you come in next week and do half a line here and half a line there?" It was genuinely frightening, because I didn't want to let down a huge movie, and equally, I didn't want to let down Peter Cushing.

Do you remember much about what changed and when you finally ended your work?

It was quite difficult to remember what the last bit was. I would literally be called back to do half a line a bit differently. Half a line that had a bit more stress to it because something else had altered slightly what had happened to a different character. It was immensely detailed. It's something of a blur.

Did you have doubts this would work?

Normally as an actor, you are you pretending to be another person. Here, I was me pretending to be Peter Cushing pretending to be Tarkin. I said at one point, "I won't be offended if you feel the voice isn't good enough or isn't right or is too young." There is a famous impersonator here called Rory Bremner. I said, "I won't be offended if you want to get him. I just want it to be good. Don't worry if you have to ditch my voice." They stuck with me gamely.

When did you finally see what it would look like?

They snuck me in to show me [early]. I thought, "We might be all right here." It was only after the London premiere I knew for sure it worked. I'd had several glasses of white wine. I wasn't able to eat, I was so frightened. "If I haven't done good enough here, it's going to be so sad. That would be very bad." I don't mean bad career-wise. I had not done any interviews. "Don't bother about my name." I'd be referred to as a stand-in and a voice double who was a disaster, and I could go on. But I didn't want to let Peter Cushing down.

Have you heard from the Cushing estate? One of its executors has praised your performance.

I haven't first hand. If that is the case, which I gather it is, I'm so delighted. The reason for doing it was honorable. When people were talking about the ethics of bringing someone back who was long dead, I could see that if it was done for the wrong reason or something a bit seedy or just for the sake of it, that would have been wrong. When John Knoll pitched the film, obviously Tarkin is such a big part of the original. Not to have Tarkin in it would be just a shame, and I think they have done it very honorably.

Before Carrie Fisher's death, Lucasfilm said Tarkin was a special case and it likely wouldn't be done again. Do you think this will become more prevalent in other Hollywood films?

MORE ON TARKIN: Some of the more eagle eyed of you out there spotted this quick shot in the video feature we posted a few days ago about the technology behind the creating of Cushing's Tarkin for Rogue one. In the background of one shot, we see a set up of Guy Henry, as Tarkin.... and the back of Princess Leia! A shot obviously not featured in the film, Rogue One. Weird? Odd? What do we make of that??

FREDDIE JONES' Professor Richter is a masterclass in pathos and madness. In 1969 Richter was Cushing's Frankstein's latest creation off the slab . . and it was Richter was reigned down the ultimate in revenge on his creator, Frankenstein. Does this make him our Monster this week ...or just another victim of the Baron's quest to create life…!

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NEW! HOW ILM BROUGHT TARKIN AND PETER CUSHING BACK TO THE SCREEN: SPOILERS!

NEW! SPOILERS! AN AMAZING short of just how INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC brought Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin back to the big screen in #STARWARS #ROGUEONE !

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A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2016 has been quite an exciting year here on the site..and we'll be reflecting on that tomorrow! For all it's ups and downs, it's been a year that would not have been any fun, if you'd not all been around to help share it! I would like to thank all our visitors, friends and followers for your interest, enthusiasm and support in keeping the memory of Peter Cushing very much alive! Thank you. A Very Happy New Year to you ALL for 2017 🙂 - Marcus Brooks (admin / editor )

PETER CUSHING 1977... and his words still hold true! On the whole the response to the CGI TARKIN has been positive, reaction to the film very good indeed. I have been asked to give another LIVE interview, another hour slot, with WGN RADIO in Chicago over the next few days..if you have an opinion about the CGI TARKIN share it below, and I'll try and share it with a name check during the interview. I will give you all a heads up when the show goes out and times, if anyone is interested . .

AND FINALLY ABOVE: we really couldn't say goodbye to 2016, without ONE LAST GOOD BYE...

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HOW WAS TARKIN BROUGHT BACK TO STAR WARS *SPOILERS*

In an interview with The New York Times, Lucasfilm has explained the reasons behind the decision to bring back faces from the past into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, along with the technology that made the feat possible.

A word of warning that there are spoilers ahead, so for those who have not yet watched Rogue One, you might not want to continue reading.

Making a new “Star Wars” movie can be like gaining access to a toy collection that has been amassed over four decades. For the creators of “Rogue One,” a film designed as a narrative lead-in to the original “Star Wars,” it was a chance to play with characters, vehicles and locations sacred to this series.

But as they revisited the 1977 George Lucas movie that started the “Star Wars” franchise, and gave fresh screen time to some lesser-known heroes and villains, the staffs of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic faced artistic and technological hurdles: most prominently, using a combination of live action and digital effects to bring back the character Grand Moff Tarkin. This nefarious ally of Darth Vader and commander of the Death Star was played by Peter Cushing, the horror-film actor, who died in 1994.

In doing so, they also waded into a postmodern debate about the ethics of prolonging the life span of a character and his likeness beyond that of the actor who originated the role. The effects experts and storytellers behind “Rogue One” (which was directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy) say they have given careful thought to these issues and were guided by their reverence for this interstellar epic.

“A lot of us got into the industry because of ‘Star Wars,’ and we all have this love of the original source material,” said John Knoll, the chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic and a visual effects supervisor on “Rogue One” who shares story credit on the film with Gary Whitta. In his view, the character effects are “in the spirit of what a lot of ‘Star Wars’ has done in the past.”

Some vintage “Rogue One” characters were easier to conjure than others. General Dodonna, a rebel officer from the original “Star Wars” was simply recast; he was played by Alex McCrindle in the first film and Ian McElhinney in the new one. Tarkin presented considerably greater difficulties, but the filmmakers said it would be just as hard to omit him from a narrative that prominently features the fearsome Death Star — the battle station he refuses to evacuate amid the rebels’ all-out assault in “Star Wars.”

“If he’s not in the movie, we’re going to have to explain why he’s not in the movie,” said Kiri Hart, a Lucasfilm story development executive and “Rogue One” co-producer. “This is kind of his thing.” For principal photography, the filmmakers cast the English actor Guy Henry (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”), who has a build and stature like Cushing’s and could speak in a similar manner. Throughout filming, Mr. Henry wore motion-capture materials on his head, so that his face could be replaced with a digital re-creation of Cushing’s piercing visage.

Mr. Knoll described the process as “a super high-tech and labor-intensive version of doing makeup.” “We’re transforming the actor’s appearance to look like another character, but just using digital technology,” he said. In striving for a balance between a digital figure who seemed real and one who looked precisely like Cushing, the “Rogue One” creators said seemingly minor tweaks could make significant differences — and these details were tinkered with constantly. For example, the original “Star Wars” film (also known as “A New Hope”) was lit differently than “Rogue One,” raising questions of how to adjust the lighting on the character. 

Hal Hickel, an Industrial Light & Magic animation supervisor, said that lighting him “the way he was in ‘A New Hope’ improved his likeness as Tarkin, but it worsened the sense of him being real because then he didn’t look like any of the actors in the scene.”Side-by-side comparisons of Cushing’s daily footage from “Star Wars” and Mr. Henry’s motion-capture performance also called attention to subtle tics in the original actor’s delivery. As Mr. Knoll explained, “When Peter Cushing makes an ‘aah’ sound, he doesn’t move his upper lip. He only opens his jaw about halfway, and makes this square shape with his lower lip, that exposes his lower teeth.” Before nuances like this were accounted for, Mr. Knoll said their creation “looked like maybe a relative of Peter Cushing and not him exactly.” Still, the animators had one golden rule: “Realism had to trump likeness,” Mr. Hickel said. If the overall effect had not succeeded, Mr. Knoll said there were other narrative choices that would reduce Tarkin’s screen presence. “We did talk about Tarkin participating in conversations via hologram, or transferring that dialogue to other characters,” he said. 

Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic said their re-creation of Cushing was done with the approval of the actor’s estate. But the technique has drawn criticism from viewers and writers. The Huffington Post called it “a giant breach of respect for the dead,” and The Guardian said it worked “remarkably well” but nonetheless described it as “a digital indignity.” Mr. Knoll said he and his colleagues were aware of the “slippery slope argument,” that their simulated Cushing was opening the door to more and more movies using digital reproductions of dead actors. “I don’t imagine that happening,” Mr. Knoll said. “This was done for very solid and defendable story reasons. This is a character that is very important to telling this kind of story.”He added: “It is extremely labor-intensive and expensive to do. I don’t imagine anybody engaging in this kind of thing in a casual manner"

If “Star Wars” films are still made in 50 or 100 years, Mr. Knoll said audiences would probably not see likenesses of Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford playing Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. (He noted that the actor Alden Ehrenreich had already been cast to play the young Han Solo in a coming film about that character.) “We’re not planning on doing this digital re-creation extensively from now on,” Mr. Knoll said. “It just made sense for this particular movie.”

The filmmakers also pointed to a scene at the end of “Rogue One,” when the intercepted Death Star plans are delivered to Princess Leia — who has been digitally recreated to look like Carrie Fisher in the original “Star Wars” — as an appropriate and effective use of the technology. Ms. Fisher died on Tuesday.

 NEW YORK TIMES

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CARRIE FISHER DIES AT 60

2016 HAS BEEN a year that has at times had me struggling, but the terribly sad news of the passing of CARRIE FISHER has me speechless and extremely sad...Sleep well, Princess....

BEST WISHES TO CARRIE FISHER

NEWS BREAKING: We would like to send our very best wishes for a speedy recovery to CARRIE FISHER who was taken into hospital earlier today . .

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Peace, Good Heath and Love to ALL our Friends and Followers . . During this festive season, we will still be here We'll be UP LOADING some great Cushing Classics to our YOUTUBE Channel over Christmas and inviting you to join us for several LIVE on-line movie get together nights on the sofa! Watch out for schedule! Veselé Vánoce - Sretan Božić - 聖誕快樂 - 圣诞快乐 - Vrolijk Kerstfeest - Joyeux Noël - Frohe Weihnachten - Rõõmsaid Jõulupühi - Καλά Χριστούγεννα - Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket - Nollaig Shona Dhuit - Buon Natale - Linksmų Kalėdų - Cualli netlācatilizpan -Wesołych Świąt - Crăciun Fericit - Счастливого рождества - Veselé Vianoce - God Jul - Feliz Navidad -Feliz Natal or Boas Festas - חג מולד שמח - Crăciun Fericit - Mutlu Noeller . . . one and ALL 😄

CUSHING COPY: ROGUE ONE NOT THE FIRST

#ROGUEONE is not the first time that Peter Cushing has had a likiness of his face/ head appear on the big screen... Here is Peter with, his 'chopped noggin' on the set of 'The House That Dripped Blood' (1971)...granted this head didn't cost the earth in CGI effects, and maybe wasn't the most reliable of replica's...but back in the day, we gave it the 'nod'😉

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GARETH EDWARDS AND TEAM WERE NERVOUS OF CGI CHARACTER FOR ROGUE ONE

RARE HAMILL INTERVIEW ON CUSHING AND STAR WARS

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: Here are some updates of POSTS from our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE, that got a lot of attention over the past few days!  The first clip features Mark Hamill talking about meeting Peter Cushing on the set of Star Wars! One from a 1970's appearance on children's television, the other a more recent Q and A session. He REALLY is a Peter Cushing fan and as you will see from the second clip, he is quite knowledgeable about Peter's life and career!

ABOVE IS probably the clip we get requested to repost, more than any other! Peter Cushing getting flustered and tripping over his dialogue in #STARWARS. Thank goodness he attempts at trying to say, 'You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system!!' Came alright in the end!

BELOW THE SLIPPERS that went on to cause so many problems many years later . . . in an interview with Peter Cushing from the mid eighties, he explains the story, we all now know so well... 
 

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ROGUE ONE IN RUNNING FOR OSCAR NOMINATION

YESTERDAY... Friday, December 16, the motion picture academy announced the 10 films that are still in the running for an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. These 10 films will compete for the final five slots that will be announced along with the complete list of Oscar nominees on January 24th 2017. The ten films that will compete for the FIVE nominations are: and breaking news “Arrival” “The BFG” “Captain America: Civil War” “Deepwater Horizon” “Doctor Strange” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” “The Jungle Book” “Kubo and the Two Strings” “Passengers” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”

WE WISH #ROGUEONE the best of luck 😋  What do you think of this TEN BEST list? Does it meet the titles you think would be in the running... and does #ROGUEONE out strip the competition??

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