Lucasfilm Sued for Using Peter Cushing’s Likeness in Rogue One

Movies

Lucasfilm messed with the Empire, and now, they’re in some legal hot water. According to The Times, the production company behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow is being sued by Kevin Francis, a longtime friend of Peter Cushing, the British actor who played Empire bigwig Gran Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. The dispute concerns Lucasfilm using Cushing’s likeness to resurrect Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the 2016 prequel to the Star Wars trilogy. Special effects recreating Peter Cushing as a deepfake were applied to actor Guy Henry, who provided the physical body for Tarkin in Rogue One. Lucasfilm claims it had the right to use Cushing’s likeness, as it was part of the contract he signed with the company when he made Star Wars, as well as “the nature of the special effects,” whatever that has to do with it. Lucasfilm did, however, pay Cushing’s estate “about £28,000,” which is $36,508.25, after speaking with Cushing’s agent. Francis claims that Cushing signed and agreement preventing anyone from using his likeness without Francis’ permission in 1993, a year before Cushing died. Francis is also suing Lunak Heavy Industries, which produced Rogue One, and is seeking £500,000, which equates to $651,932.98, claiming “unjust enrichment.” Disney tried to get the case dismissed, but a judge in the UK just ruled that the case can go forward.

You mean Disney/Lucasfilm went against a dead man’s wishes to make money because they just assumed no one had rights to his likeness and they could do whatever they wanted? Get right out of town! They’re usually such stand-up guys. I’m not a legal expert, so this is mostly me thinking out loud, but I wonder if the fact that Disney and Lucasfilm paid Peter Cushing’s estate will work against them; they knew someone had to be compensated, but they didn’t do their due diligence in finding out the specific legalities of using Cushing’s likeness. The Times piece says that Francis previously sued the executors of Cushing’s estate, who have since passed away, as well as Cushing’s management agency; that may actually help them if they can argue that the legalities of this were so convoluted that nobody knew what Peter Cushing really wanted. While allowing the case to go forward, the judge said that the legalities of this are murky as the practice is relatively new, so it’s not a slam dunk in either direction right now. It’s conceivable that this case will help set a precedent and clear guidelines for using a dead actor’s likeness. The article cites some examples of using special effects to recreate a dead actor in the past, such as Brandon Lee in The Crow and Oliver Reed in Gladiator. But those movies were already in production, and the actors had physically appeared in the roles for the bulk of the films. It’s not like they digitally recreated Brandon Lee for that Crow remake that was released a few weeks ago. Peter Cushing had been dead for over twenty years when Rogue One was made.

I doubt this will be part of the case, but from an outsider’s perspective, the fact that the recreated Tarkin in Rogue One looked absolutely awful adds insult to the injury. They made Peter Cushing look like a ridiculous cartoon, and the effect felt more like a mockery than anything else. (And that’s not even getting into how that movie diminished Tarkin as a character.) They also made the younger Princess Leia look like some weird ghost haunting her ship, but at least Carrie Fisher was alive when they filmed it and presumably gave her consent. With the improvements in AI – and it really has improved quickly, as anyone who’s seen what Grok is capable of on X can tell you – bringing back dead actors will assuredly become a more common practice, and the race will be on by studios to snap up likeness rights. And if you’re a movie fan, despite the ugliness of the practice, it’s hard not to be momentarily enamored at the prospect of, for example, seeing Sean Connery play James Bond again or seeing Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in another sizzling noir film. (This is, of course, assuming those movies would be good, which they wouldn’t be because the modern era would never allow for appropriate films starring those actors to be made.) But it really does feel cynical, exploitative, and wrong, like the studios want to turn the greats who have earned their rests into eternal cash machines who’ve lost their ability to consent to appearing in a film and being forced to make money for Hollywood executives who’ve probably never even met them. I have no idea how this case will go, but I’m even less sure of what the cinema landscape will look like as technology gives Disney and other studios the power to resurrect the legends.

Let us know what you think of the Peter Cushing likeness case or using special effects to resurrect dead actors in the comments!

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