Article written by Samuel Burnett.
Last week, Star Wars director JJ Abrams announced that Carrie Fisher’s character, General Leia, will appear in the ninth film in the science-fiction saga via the use of previously unseen footage. The 60-year-old’s unexpected death in 2017 left people wondering how the character would be treated in the next film. Would Leia die offscreen? Would the character not die at all and simply exist offscreen with the characters simply mentioning things she had said and done? Or, would they go all out and resurrect the character via CGI (something that the franchise has done in the past)?
While we now have our answer, sadly, Fisher is not the only actor to die before completing production on a film, and there are many ways that a studio can respond to such an unexpected tragedy.
Replace the actor
When the unthinkable happens, sometimes replacing the deceased actor can often be the simplest solution. Sometimes the nature of the film can make this easier, such as in the fantasy film, The Imagination of Doctor Parnassus. When Heath Ledger died only a third into filming, it was expected that the film would simply be cancelled, a sad yet understandable course of action. However, as the film was a fantasy, when Tony (Ledger’s character) travelled to other “magical” worlds, he would transform his appearance. Friends of Ledger, Jonny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law would portray the character in these fantastical scenes while, serendipitously, all of Ledger’s scene set in the “real world” had already been filmed and would remain.
However, it is not always possible for the story to accommodate the changing of an actor, and sometimes the previously shot footage is simply scrapped and replaced, as was sadly the case during The Matrix: Reloaded. Singer and actress Aaliyah had been cast in a supporting role in the film, but died before completing her scenes. As production could not be halted over only a supporting role, her scenes were reshot with Nona Gaye now taking on the role.
Use what footage has already been shot
Sometimes, the studios simply decide to use whatever footage had already been shot featuring the actor and work around it. Sometimes this can work well, other times… other times you get Game of Death.
Yes, that is an image of Bruce Lee’s actual funeral. Yes, that is also a still from the movie. Yes, this film actually used footage of Bruce Lee’s real funeral, including his actual real corpse, in their exploitative stain on the history of film.
The film would go to truly insane lengths to hide the fact that it no longer had its leading man (if filming the man’s corpse wasn’t insane enough) including a series of unconvincing stand-ins and even gluing a cardboard cut-out of Bruce Lee to a mirror!
If I hadn’t seen the footage for myself, I would have simply assumed that this was someone’s idea of a sick joke – but no, this actually happened.
Of course, there are other examples of films that handled this sort of thing better. In 1999, during the production of Gladiator, Oliver Reed died of a heart attack before he had finished all of his scenes. So, the production made use of what he had already completed and used computer imagery to film an additional two minutes of footage to finish his character’s arc.
Of course, that brings us to…
Use CGI to keep the character alive
Due to the previous limitations of technology, this is a newer solution to an old problem. Essentially, through the power of CGI, a digital version of the actor is created and subsequently pasted over the stand-in that is interacting with the other co-stars.
Most famously, this technique was used in Furious 7 when Paul Walker tragically died during production. As he had not yet finished his scenes, this required massive rewrites to the script so that they could retire the character in a respectful way.
Using a combination of body doubles (including Walker’s own brothers), unused footage and CGI, Walker was able to complete the film, culminating in a final scene that left this writer sobbing like a baby.
Of course, this is not without controversy, as many believe it to be exploitative of the deceased actor’s image, but personally I find it more tasteful than filming the actor’s corpse.
There is also the fear that this could lead to studios casting deceased actors in their films, as what had happened in Rogue One. Peter Cushing had played the role of Tarkin back in the original Star Wars film, and when Disney wanted to make an immediate prequel, it would make little sense for the character not to appear in some capacity.
So, with the permission of the actor’s family, actor Guy Henry (bearing a striking resemblance to Cushing) played the role of Tarkin with a CGI Cushing superimposed over his face. This was not without controversy, as Cushing had been dead for many years at this point and was never attached to this film in any capacity. However, it must also be noted that Cushing had always said one of his regrets was never doing another Star Wars film, so make of it what you will.
Of course, all the CGI in the world is sometimes not enough to salvage a production, forcing the company to do something they would never want to do…
Scrap the production altogether
While not a popular choice, as often a significant sum of money will have already been spent, sometimes there is no other option than simply ending the film’s production.
In 1962, due to Marilyn Munroe’s personal behavior and subsequent death, the filming of Something’s Got to Give was halted, never to resume. While an indeterminate amount of footage had already been recorded (including a provocative nude scene that would have been the first of its time) production never resumed despite the studio’s efforts and finally, the film simply petered away into nothingness, only to be repackaged in a documentary released years later.
It just goes to show that death is a powerful thing and, sometimes, all the money in the world cannot undo what it takes away.
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