6 Insane Attempts to Make Movies Starring Dead Movie Stars
The entertainment industry is willing to overlook a lot when it comes to its stars. Substance abuse, violent outbursts and subsequent arrests... and sometimes even the fact that the actor in question is no longer alive.
Hey, you can't let something like a little death get in the way. There's money to be made.
#6.
Bruce Lee in Game of Death
In 1973, Bruce Lee burst onto the scene with Enter the Dragon and was on track to become a major Hollywood star, or at least he would have if he hadn't died three months before the movie's release in the U.S. But the producers weren't about to let the minor issue of Lee's mysterious demise ruin a promising young career, so they set about making a blockbuster follow-up in the face of all logic and reason.
"Of course we want to honor his memory. Shove a stick in his ass and call some puppeteers."
Before making Enter the Dragon, Lee had been working on his own movie, The Game of Death, but had only managed to finish filming part of the climatic action scene. The sequence featured him fighting the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while encased in a yellow track suit that proved his skills at martial arts did not extend to costume design.
The director of Enter the Dragon took these unfinished scraps and tried to cobble together a finished film using new footage featuring several stand-ins who, aside from also being Asian guys who knew how to kick and punch, didn't resemble Bruce Lee in any way.
To explain this, the producers inserted footage of Bruce Lee's real-life funeral to suggest that the main character had faked his own death, thus allowing Bruce Lee's fill-ins to spend the rest of the movie wearing fake beards and other wacky disguises without disrupting the narrative. We don't like to judge, but when you're including shots of your star's actual dead body lying in his actual casket, anything less than the biggest box office receipts of all time would land you the worst haunting in the history of the universe.
Of course this death fakery plot needed some sort of set-up, so early on in the film they had to shoot around the impostors using shadows, giant sunglasses, incredibly awkward editing and gluing a cardboard cutout of Bruce Lee to a mirror.
You read that right.
By the end of the movie all bets are off, and absolutely no attempt is made to disguise the new actor's appearance.
"Screw it, they all look the same anyway."
Inexplicably, the producers also saw fit to make Game of Death 2 three years later, splicing together even more unused footage of the martial arts legend. Bruce Lee's character is actually killed off early in this movie, but you sure as hell wouldn't know it from the trailer.
#5.
Tony Soprano's Mom
During The Sopranos glory years, Tony's mother Livia was probably the second most fascinating character on the show. She could shift gears from senile old widow to terrifying, cunning sociopath with frightening speed. You couldn't watch the first two seasons of the show without coming to the conclusion that you'd feel safer turning your back on Tony.
Nancy Marchand, the actress who played her, unfortunately passed away after the second season. Surely The Sopranos, one of the most critically acclaimed shows in the history of television, would have the dignity to just have her die peacefully off screen. Surely.
But, you know by now that would be too much to ask. After all, this is the 21st century, when we can use CGI to insert dead pitch men into our commercials. So, by patching together some existing footage and using CG to crop her into a new setting, we got one final dramatic scene between Tony Soprano and the digital ghost of a dead actress. Her side of the conversation (about 6:00 in) is made up of out-of-context audio clips that plays like the wacky sound boards morning show DJ's use to make prank calls.
The bizarre exchange comes off as exactly what it is--two actors who no longer inhabit the same mortal realm:
Tony: Hey, Ma!
Livia: Look who calls!
Tony: Well, actually I'm standing here in front of you.
Livia: Eh!
Tony: I brought you some books on tape since you say you can't concentrate to read.
Livia: I wish the lord would take me now!
What? Who is she talking to? After that, Tony tells her which books he brought, which inexplicably prompts her to lean forward in alarm and say, "WHY? WHAT'S WRONG?!?" Nothing fits, and everything is punctuated by a handful of tics and mumbles with some nonsensical gesturing.
Visually, the scene is all kinds of creepy, with Tony's mom looking oddly washed-out and otherworldly. The effect makes it seem like she's already dead and Tony is yelling at one of The Frighteners.
We guess we understand that you'd hate to give such a great character an off-screen death, so really they didn't have a choice... oh, wait. In in the very next scene we're informed she died off camera anyway.
#4.
John Candy's Last Role
Wagon's East was a forgettable comedy about a bunch of whiny pioneers who talk like characters on a C-grade Seinfeld clone. Well, it would be forgettable if it didn't turn out to be comedy giant John Candy's last role. Candy died during production, and the producers swore up and down that Candy had wrapped shooting before he passed away. This was clearly a load of bullshit.
Even though he was the top billed star, Candy probably ranks third or fourth in terms of total screen time. OK, big deal, that happens in a lot of movies. But then you notice that usually all you see are reaction shots of Candy silently nodding or staring blankly into space just so you won't forget he's there.
Then, at one point it's revealed that he was the wagon master of the Donner Party, and the depressed Candy rides away and is simply missing for most of the rest of the movie. Nobody seems to care that he's gone, and no mention is made of his dabbling in cannibalism once he comes back. And then, it gets stupider.
A sharp eye, or even a casual eye watching the movie over a magazine, will catch scenes where they actually reused certain shots, awkwardly superimposing them over new footage. For instance, the key turning point in the character's story is when he resolves to clean up and stop drinking.
Then, later in the film, he does it again. Only this time, digitally inserted over a new backdrop:
Here's the scene on YouTube, in case you're doubting that a major studio would use a cheap trick that never even occurred to Ed Wood. But, hey, at least they didn't throw in footage from John Candy's funeral.
I find it odd that the writer would criticize the usage of footage of Bruce's body in state at the actual funeral and then also use a photo of his body in its coffin for this story.
ReplyI think its more an example to prove it exists. Also, the passage of time heals wounds and its been long enough. Still, you have a point on some levels but i think its part of his "act" to criticize, then turn around and do the same thing.
No mention of Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassuss? Way to make me feel like the biggest geek in the room guys!
ReplyCheck the date of the article.
They should have just released Bruce Lee's fight scene with Kareemby itself. That scene is pretty cool but the rest of the movie sucks.
Replythe story about john candy and bruce lee really freaked me out..
Replyits crazy they still try to put out a movie when the lead actor dies in the middle of filming, and still try to make money on it.
Heh, as most people probably know, the postmortem exploitation of Bruce Lee turned into an entire industry.
ReplyI'm ashamed to admit that I have Trail of the Pink Panther on DVD. I didn't know that it would be like that when I picked it up though. :(
ReplyWhat a travesty of a "film". The ones from when Sellers was still alive are great fun though.
The Lugosi case is so notorious I was surprised it didn´t get mentioned.
ReplyA famous case was The Crow, where Brandon Lee was killed by a prop gun that inexplicably had real ammo - Bruce´s son, how creepy is that? - and they finished the movie without him, but in this case, aside from a couple suspiciously shadowy shots of him, it worked.
There were rumors that Heath Ledger hadn´t completed looping his lines for TDK. His performance seems complete in the movie, although there are a couple moments where the score is strangely absent, like in the Lower Wacker chase.
Actually, it wasn't a prop gun with real ammo. Nobody in the film industry is stupid enough to leave real ammo around with fake ammo (they have no need to ever use real ammo). Instead, it was a combination of two factors. First, films use dummy bullets - they look like real bullets, but they don't have a charge. Basically, they're just hunks of metal. Second, blanks are basically just charges without bullets - they go "pop", but they can't really hurt you (unless you fire the blank very close to the skin or near your ears). You can probably see where this is going.
A dummy bullet got stuck in a revolver after being used for a close up. This wasn't noticed by the time they were shooting the scene which called for blanks. Bullet with no charge + charge = real bullet. Brandon Lee was killed.
For those wondering, while Lee's mother, Linda Lee Cradwell, did file a civil lawsuit, both she and Lee's wife, Eliza, were still supportive of the film being finished.
Quote from Snopes:
Concern over how to market a movie in which the principal star has been killed prompted the original studio, Paramount Pictures, to bow out. Several other studios declined the film, until Miramax, which has earned a reputation for successfully marketing small, hard-to-sell films, took it up. Miramax has used controversy to its advantage in marketing films like The Crying Game, but took the high road in the release of The Crow. Very little was made of Lee's death in the advertising of his final film, and the closing credits carry the simple dedication "For Brandon and Eliza".
So, in the end, while The Crow was a film made after the lead actor's death, it wasn't an "insane attempt".
So, although it wasn´t technically real ammo, in practical terms it worked as such.
Bela Lugosi in "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and Jayne Mansfield in "Wild Wild World Of Jayne Mansfield" are 2 more examples of film leads who died and same footage as well as doubles were used.
ReplySo the guy that directed Sky Captain never made another movie since. That's kinda sad.
ReplySky Captain was a great movie, this article fails for claiming it was anything but.
ReplyWhere's Plan 9 on this list?
ReplyWhere it belongs, in the trash. Plan 9 was a bad idea by anyone's imagination and survives only as a footnote in the records of two of the greatest men to ever give Hollywood the time of day, only to be destroyed by it.
Wow, I never knew that about Wagons East. (Sure, it was a stupid movie, but it was funny.) Then again, I saw it when it first came out, so that was over a decade ago.
ReplyTrail of the Pink Panther was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw the link for this article. SO glad it made #1 - it completely deserves that ignominy.
ReplyI also thought of that first thing and I agree.
I still think that Roger Moore actually played Clouseau very well. This does not excuse Curse, which would be a decent movie by itself (Trail sucked any way you slice it), but doesn't fit in as a Pink Panther movie, in both style and quality.
ReplyAgree - personally still laugh when he says " some swine of an architect moved your door!"
Apparently using Olivier in Sky Captain was Jude Law's idea. Kerry Conran, the director, was trying to figure out how to do Totenkopf when Law suggested Olivier, because he always wanted to act opposite him.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesI'm going to throw in my support for Sky Captain. I understand why it didn't do well, because it was really trying to make a 1930's style film when nobody watches those anymore. It was perfect for what it was, and I do watch 1930's movies, so everything about it worked for me. The whole opening, from overture to the end of the invasion of New York absolutely blew me away like nothing in a theatre has before or since.
Sky Captain was awesome.
I enjoyed it too but I didn't know who Olivier was or that he was dead so it wasn't jarring in any way to see his face.
I enjoyed Sky Captain too, my only beef with Olivier/Totenkopf was that it was forced to be so brief that it didn't integrate into the plot as well as some newly-filmed footage by a live actor would've.
BTW, there's a new movie starring Orson Welles coming out this holiday 2011!
Sky Captain is a great movie and like Bob, I had no idea who that guy was, so it was no big deal.
Shemp died in 1955, not '59. Stooges last Columbia short was released in 1959.
ReplySometimes they hang onto films.a while before releasing them. They could make a deadline that you have to follow, then hold the movie for three years. That might be the case.here.
Laurence Olivier's role in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" was actually rather brilliant: an actor who had been dead for 15-years playing a character who had been dead for 15-years. It works rather beautifully when you think about it.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesOn a related note "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is grossly underrated.
I agree. It's the same principle as with Mars Attacks!!!: The director intended it to make it look like that from the beginning because of the movies that inspired him, so if you're going to criticize it, you have to do it knowing the full context.
I quite like the film, as well. But I get the feeling that if you haven't seen it, you'll only like it if you already know you're going to like it on the basis of the appeal of modernized-nostalgia.
Agreed. Sky Captain is EXACTLY the sort of move they would have made in the 1930's if they had CGI. That's what made it so brilliant. It was PERFECT. Even the bad parts, like the wooden acting, were bad in exactly the way that they're bad in movies from the 30's.
Unfortunately, most people don't like movies from the 30's. Sky Captain was a super-niche cult film to say the least. Had the director finished the whole thing himself and found some small scale distribution it might have worked out better.
This is unrelated to the article, but everyone who goes to youtube and feel the need to say cracked are retarded f*gs. Every. Single. One of you.
Reply Hide All See All 3 Replieslol, you're so funny
Yes very true! It's ridiculous to read it time and time ago, it should be a mutual understanding.
Thank you!
Actually all of the footage of the real bruce lee used in the game of death 2 was taken from enter the dragon.
ReplyAm I really the only one who would love to see a follow up of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It's not brilliant but I really enjoyed it.
ReplyI love it as well. And hey, its effect worked better than on Star Wars (the stage thing. And what's wrong to use a dead man for that particular scene? a) the character is a mad scientist b) that's a recording and c) ** SPOILER *** he's found dead ** SPOILER **. It's a fantastic movie.
Yeah, I freakin' loved that movie