Star Wars’ Most Evil Villain May Join The Cast Of Rogue One
Though cryogenics and/or human cloning may be decades away from the place that those of us who long for immortality would like, it is comforting to know that once dead, we can currently be resurrected in either hologram or CGI format. Not to be bested by Tupac or Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Peter Cushing—Star Wars’ Grand Moff Tarkin—may be about to make the ultimate comeback as well.
Let us preface this by saying that this report comes from England’s The Daily Mail, whose journalistic credibility is itself a hologram. Caveats aside, rumour has it that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards plans on reanimating Cushing’s Death Star-commanding character using CGI (as opposed to the actor’s remains—Cushing passed away in 1994).
The renowned horror film star played the guy Darth Vader reports to, making his inclusion in Rogue One a logical choice. The film centers on a group of Rebels attempting to steal the plans for the Death Star—an Empire-backed construction project that the Moff would most likely be heavily involved in.
“This is one of the most complex and costly CGI re-creations ever. Cushing is a pivotal plot line as he was the one to create Darth Vader and there’s a whole backstory that will come out,” said The Daily Mail’s unnamed source. “They are going through hours and hours of old footage from the horror movies to recreate his legs and feet to produce realistic movements,” they add, referencing the fact that Cushing couldn’t stand the Grand Moff’s boots and wore slippers instead, causing George Lucas to agree to only shoot him from the knees up.
A first photo of the upcoming film’s cast appeared online a little over a week ago featuring stars Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen. Cushing wasn’t in it. Guess they’re still CGI-ing him back to his best self. They’d better hurry though, Rogue One hits theatres in December 2016 so unless it’s a mere cameo they want, the filmmakers have a lot of work ahead of them.
