Image rights over a person’s likeness are at the center of a legal battle between a production company and Disney-owned Lucasfilm and Lunak Heavy Industries.
As The Times reports, a friend of the late celebrated actor Peter Cushing, known for his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, is suing Lucasfilm and Lunak Heavy Industries for digitally recreating Cushing’s character in the 2016 film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Grand Moff Tarkin is featured in the 2016 movie, which takes place weeks before the events of A New Hope. However, since Cushing died at 81 in 1994, Rogue One‘s makers opted to use a body double, actor Guy Henry, and sophisticated technology to recreate Grand Moff Tarkin for about four minutes of screen time. The process relied in part on a life-cast of Cushing’s face created in the 1980s for the film Top Secret, as Screen Rant reported in 2021. The process is also explained in an ABC News video below.
In response to the lawsuit, filed in England by a friend of Cushing, film producer Kevin Francis, Disney claims it did not believe permission was required to recreate Cushing’s Tarkin character in 2016 due to contractual terms for Cushing’s appearance in the first Star Wars film nearly 50 years ago. Disney also says it agreed on a payment of £28,000 to Cushing’s estate to clear the use of Cushing’s likeness.
Francis, suing on behalf of his company, Tyburn Film Productions, claims that Cushing, who he counted as among his oldest friends, told him that permission should not be granted to use his likeness without Francis’ authorization. Francis and Cushing worked together on multiple films, including The Ghoul, Legend of the Werewolf, and The Masks of Death.
Francis has also brought legal claims against the executors of Cushing’s estate, who have died in the years since Rogue One released, and the agency that represented Cushing until he died.
Disney filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last year, which was denied. Disney then filed an appeal, which Judge Tom Mitcheson rejected this week.
While Mitcheson is unconvinced that Francis’ case will prove successful, the judge doesn’t believe the case should be thrown out before trial.
Recreating a person’s likeness after their death is not uncommon, but it is demonstrably a legal gray area, especially as it becomes easier for movie makers to do. AI-generated likenesses was a major concern for striking Hollywood actors last year, and the state of California recently passed a law requiring explicit consent to use an AI-generated replica of a deceased performer
Image credits: Featured image of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in ‘Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope’. Courtesy of starwars.com.