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NEWS > BUSINESS >DIGITAL ACTORS LOOKING TO GET A BIGGER PIECE OF FINANCIAL PIE IN HOLLYWOOD
DIGITAL ACTORS LOOKING TO GET A BIGGER PIECE OF FINANCIAL PIE IN HOLLYWOOD
June 1 2011
Hollywood, CA – Hollywood has from the very beginning relied on its stars. Technicians created the gear, writers wrote the scripts, and directors drove the on screen action just as happens today, but people turned out for the stars. As much as 
the people deeply involved with the medium would like to believe that it is an art on par with, say, literature Hollywood has always been business first, and that business has always been deeply invested in stars.
Even the most ardent fans of film would argue that the latest Vin Diesel or Johnny Depp vehicle is a work of art, on par with the great paintings or poems of the past. That is simply not the way movies work. True, there are great works of art in the medium, but the vast majority of works and success is almost wholly dependent on spectacle, and at the centre of that spectacle is quite often a star. Stars though, as important as they are, do come and go with age eventually causing many to be put out to pasture in favour of new generations. That cycle has been going on since the beginning of Hollywood, but now in the digital age may be coming to an end. The increasing use of digital actors in major hit movies has removed the age factor, leaving actors able to perform forever, and prompting many of them to try for a bigger share of the money they are making for the industry.
“It’s a controversial topic in many circles but like everything in Hollywood, the solution is to just push it off until it hits a crisis level. Being proactive in Hollywood has never
been the SOP,” said one Hollywood insider. “Most studios are really scared about being the first ones to pull the trigger. There’s a lot of money at stake and they don’t
like sharing it if they don’t have to. The guys who make the first big deal with a digital actor are not going to be well-liked in the town and nobody wants to be that person.”
Digital actors have played major roles in recent blockbusters such as ‘Tron: Legacy’ and played a starring role in 2009’s ‘Avatar’, the biggest box office success of all time.
“Maybe in the long term digital actors are not the best investment, but for now they are hot and that is going to cause a lot of competition for their time, and it’s going to cause a lot of tension between studios,” continued the insider. “I know that executives at one studio at least have been offering incentives to digital performers, though not out and out giving them more cash. That is just the beginning though. Eventually they will start to organize and become a dominant force in Hollywood. Already the acting union has started to make noise and that has everyone concerned.”
Digital performers first became known during the release of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, though their roots reach further back than that.
“Recently it has taken on a totally different feel. I remember back when ‘Jurassic Park’ came out and they had digital stunts and dinosaurs and that was a big deal. Now though we have digital performers playing starring roles, carrying the whole picture. It isn’t going to be long before we have to pay for that,” continued the insider. “We’ve staved them off for a long time, but I think it will be the next ‘Avatar’ movie which really tips the scales. That’s surely going to be a huge blockbuster and will star many digital actors. If they don’t get their cut, well it could cause problems to say the least.”
James Cameron, the writer and director of the ‘Avatar’ movies, has apparently been involved in negotiations with various digital performers for the sequels, the first of which is due in 2014.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS >DIGITAL ACTORS LOOKING TO GET A BIGGER PIECE OF FINANCIAL PIE IN HOLLYWOOD
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