Lucasfilm wins bid to throw out UK lawsuit over 'resurrection' of 'Star Wars' character

[Aeson]

Lucasfilm wins bid to throw out UK lawsuit over 'resurrection' of 'Star Wars' character | Reuters Lucasfilm wins bid to throw out UK lawsuit over 'resurrection' of 'Star Wars' character

They underestimated the power of the dark side. I think it's a bad idea to resurrect dead actors in this way. Let them and their family rest. Tarkin wasn't necessary to tell the story. His likeness was there for fan service.

 

[aco175]

I'm guessing that some language in is all the contracts now on how their likeness can be use in perpetuity. Also language on how AI images and voice can be used.

 

[Aeson]

I had heard Majel Barrett and James Earl Jones left samples of their voices to be used in future Star Trek and Star Wars projects. I think it's fine with their expressed consent.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

From the subject line, I thought it would be a class action suit over 'somehow Palpatine came back' and wanted to know how to join the class.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

CGI Peter Cushing was a mistake. Like so much bad CGI, they thought about being able to do it, not being able to do it well. Having a new actor take the role would've been far less intrusive.

 

[jian]

Wait, so the suit wasn’t from Cushing’s family or estate objecting to his being digitally zombified, it was from another film company who reckoned they had the right to reanimate him first? Leave the poor man to his rest.

 

[briggart]

Wait, so the suit wasn’t from Cushing’s family or estate objecting to his being digitally zombified, it was from another film company who reckoned they had the right to reanimate him first? Leave the poor man to his rest.

IIRC, Lucasfilm got permission to use Cushing likeness, but there are multiple parties who claim to have the right to Cushing image, which led to few lawsuits.

 

[jolt]

A year before he died, Cushing signed on to be in a TV film for a British company. That never happened as he died the next year. As this was the last contract he signed, the company claimed that they (and not Disney/Lucasfilm) had the rights to any "resurrection" use. The judge has basically said that's not how it works and there's nothing in the 1993 contract to indicate that the company filing the suit has ownership of anything and so struck down the entire case.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Huh. Hadn't heard about it, and while I despised CGI Cushing (and CGI Carrie Fisher even more!) I was kinda hoping the lawsuit would have been about "Somehow, Palpatine returned!" in Ep. 9. If any Star Wars character and plot decision was deserving of a legal tongue-lashing, it should be that one.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Wow, this case is so frivolous it makes me side with Disney's use of CGI Tarkin. These jokers thought happening to have an unfulfilled contract for acting with Cushing before his death gave them some sort of exclusive likeness rights forever.