One of the big talking points coming out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the return of Grand Moff Tarkin, with Industrial Light & Magic digitally recreating the likeness of Peter Cushing, some 22 years after his death.
Given Tarkin’s ties to the Death Star, it was perhaps inevitable that the character would feature prominently in the Anthology movie, and during an interview with The New York Times, ILM’s John Knoll has detailed the process the filmmakers went through to resurrect Cushing’s villain for the film.
“[It’s] a super high-tech and labor-intensive version of doing makeup,” said Knoll. “We’re transforming the actor’s appearance to look like another character, but just using digital technology.”
On set, Tarkin was performed by British actor Guy Henry (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), who wore motion-capture equipment on his head. The visual effects artists then studied dailies of Cushing’s performance in A New Hope in order to identify subtle tics and nuances.
“When Peter Cushing makes an ‘aah’ sound, he doesn’t move his upper lip,” Knoll continues. “He only opens his jaw about halfway, and makes this square shape with his lower lip, that exposes his lower teeth.”
Knoll explained that should the VFX team have failed to reach a certain level of realism, “we did talk about Tarkin participating in conversations via hologram, or transferring that dialogue to other characters.”
SEE ALSO: Gareth Edwards on incorporating unused footage from A New Hope into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Tarkin’s inclusion in Rogue One has come in for some criticism with regards to the ethics of reproducing dead actors, but Knoll doesn’t feel we’ll see a proliferation in digital recreations, stating that: “This was done for very solid and defendable story reasons. This is a character that is very important to telling this kind of story. It is extremely labor-intensive and expensive to do. I don’t imagine anybody engaging in this kind of thing in a casual manner.”
From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story sees Gareth Edwards (Monsters) directing a cast that includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Alan Tudyk (Con Man), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), Genevieve O’Reilly (Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith), Jimmy Smits (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones), James Earl Jones (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Valene Kane (The Fall), Alistair Petrie (The Night Manager), Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode IV – Return of the Jedi), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones) and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock).
Originally published December 29, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
