New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

44 newyork| november11–24, 2019

Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Heath Ledgerwill

play the Joker again, and the next Sexandthe

City movie will star a virtual Kim Cattrall(who

could lease the rights to her digital likenessto

Warner Bros. for extortionate amounts ofmoney,

let another actress play her as Samanthavia

motion capture, and never have to seetheco-

stars she dislikes so much in person everagain).

Even if Hollywood were to reprioritizeoriginal

movies, the pullback over the past decadehas

created a shortage of new stars capableoflead-

ing them. With fewer chances to stand outamid

somuchflashy intellectualproperty,andwith

moviegoers’ attentions divided by socialmedia,

tribal politics, anda dozen

different streaming net-

works, not manyyounger

actors have managedto

reach the same levelsof rec-

ognition and box-office

power as their predeces-

sors. Meryl Streep(70),

Sandra Bullock (55),and

Jennifer Lopez (50)have

been wiping multiplex

floors with JenniferLaw-

rence (29), EmmaStone

(31), and Anne Hathaway

(36). And in the absenceof

younger male action

heroes, Keanu Reeves(55),

Denzel Washington(64),

andLiamNeeson(67)are

stillkarate-choppingRussianhenchmenevenas

theirprostatesmightposea more immediate

threat. Whichiswhy themost valuablefran-

chisesofallmaybeolderstars—theoneswho

haverelationshipswithaudiencesspanning

multiplegenerations,whobringtoeverynew

role theaccrued charisma of theirentire

onscreenlives,andwhocanstilloccasionallyget

majorstudiostocoughupthefinancingformov-

iesthataren’tsequelstootherones.Whenthose

starsretire,entire filmgenresmightberetired

withthem.Butif Hollywoodcouldmake backup

copiesof theseactorsandreanimatedeadones—

say BruceLee,AudreyHepburn,andJames

Deanforstarters—andcast themallinmovies

togetherat theageswerememberthembest,

theremightbenoneedfornew starseveragain.

(Last week,bytheway, it wasannouncedthat a

computer-generatedversionofDeanwillhavea

leadroleinFindingJack,a movieaboutthe

VietnamWar,whichstartedyearsafterthereal

Dean’s death.)Willdigitalactorslookasgoodor

actaswella esthey’reclonedfrom?Prob-

ablynot,at first.Butthat won’t matter,

justlike it doesn’t matterthat Spotify is a sonic

downgradefromCDs,orthat moviesmadedigi-

tallylookflatterthanonesshotonfilm,because

thetechnologywillprovidetoomany otherben-

efits. And maybe after we’ve seen it used taste-

fully a few times, in service of stories that couldn’t

be told any other way, and in ways that appeal to

our preferred nostalgic recollections, we’ll get

more comfortable with it. Good filmmakers have

coaxed great performances out of actors with

limited ranges by carefully tailoring their roles—

Adam Sandler is supposedly an awards con-

tender this year—and they’ll find a way to get the

best work out of digital clones, too. Critics hated

Gemini Man, but more of them blamed the

script than the effects. Reviews for Martin Scors-

ese’sTheIrishmanhavebeenmostly positive

despite the de-aging techniques used on Robert

De Niro, which leave his face shiny and only half-

mobile in some scenes, because it’s just more fun

to enjoy the reunion of Scorsese and a youthful-

seeming De Niro than nitpick how it looks. And

if Oscar winners like Ang Lee and Scorsese are

already using tech like this in its still-primitive

forms, who are other auteurs to turn up their

noses, especially in a few years when digital clon-

ing and de-aging get even better?

—LANE BROWN

You’ll No Longer

Know Precisely

How Many Friends

You Have

AtSomePoint,OneofThese

Campaign-FinanceReformsMight

ActuallyTake

“Voterscouldgivethese 100

‘democracydollars’toany

candidateorcampaign.Thisway

if youweretoge t 10,000

Americanvotersbehindyou,you

wouldraise$1millionin

democracy dollars,andthenif

thelobbyistscamewavinga

$50,000checkatyou,youwould

say, ‘I don’t careaboutyour

$50,000check,I’mgettingmy

moneyfromthepeople.’ Bythe

math,democracydollarswould

washoutlobbyistdollarsbya

factorofmorethanfive-to-one.”

—ANDREWYANG

APR 30

Instagram

tries to

remove the

LIKE button.

MAY 1

Kirsten

Gillibrand

proposes

reforming

campaign

finance

through

“democracy

dollars.”



Before and
after render-
ings of a young
Will Smith in
Gemini Man.

PHOTOGRAPH: YOUTUBE (SMITH)