Rendering History | Tragic Comedy

Scott Hardie | December 31, 2017
We've started watching The Crown on Netflix -- every episode of which is excellent so far -- and remarking on how much the cast looks like the real people they portray. They're close, though biology prevents them from looking exactly right.

That makes me wonder: Should technology close the gap?

CGI has already become sufficiently advanced to invent photo-realistic fictional characters and to let actors play them through motion capture, right down to minute facial movements. Should CGI be used to allow an actor to portray an exact replica of a historical figure on screen, as long as the actor is credited? Or is that too much of an encroachment on the real person's right to their own identity and image? Does it change if the person is deceased?

We've already seen it in tiny doses, like TV commercials and brief encounters in films along the lines of Forrest Gump. I'm talking about making an entire film or show about a historical figure this way, making them a main character for an hour of screen time or more.

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