The illusion of deepfake technology is now so vast that Bruce Willis can appear on screen without ever having been on a movie set.
But don’t get ready for a slew of new movies just yet.
Although a report in the Telegraph indicated Willis had made history of sorts by being the first major film star to sell the rights to, well, himself, later reports have said that’s not so.
The Telegraph report said Willis worked with a company called Deepcake to create a digital twin.
However, the Hollywood Reporter said a representative of Willis shot down that claim.
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Willis “has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company,” the representative said.
A Deepcake representative said that Willis did not sell the company his rights, according to the BBC.
“The wording about rights is wrong… Bruce couldn’t sell anyone any rights, they are his by default,” the representative said.
Deepcake’s representative said it created a digital twin of Willis for a 2021 ad campaign in Russia for a cell phone carrier.
A representative of Deepcake told the BBC it worked closely with Willis and his team on the ad.
Russian firm Deepcake used an authorized deepfake of the Bruce Willis in the commercial for telecoms company Megafon. The company uses an artificial neural network to impose Willis’ image onto the face of a Russian actor pic.twitter.com/7bizoLsk2S
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 22, 2021
“What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin,” the representative said.
Deepcake’s website includes quotes it says are from Willis about the ad campaign.
“I liked the precision of my character,” the site quotes Willis as saying.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to go back in time. The neural network was trained on content of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Fifth Element,’ so my character is similar to the images of that time.”
“With the advent of the modern technology, I could communicate, work and participate in filming, even being on another continent. It’s a brand new and interesting experience for me, and I am grateful to our team,” the site quoted Willis as saying.
In March, it was announced that Willis was no longer going to be acting because he was suffering from aphasia, a cognitive disease.
