Bruce Lee

Some interesting Rob Cohen news from the Latino Times.

The big headline is that I am NOT using clips from the film; I am creating an entirely photo-realistic Bruce Lee with new, advanced digital technlogy. Digital Domain who did "XXX" and "Stealth" with me are on it big time. We are in the vfx development stage.

This will be the first digital actor and I am very excited about the challenge.

We do have the rights to Bruce's films but the lines are all I am going to use. The Lee Family is also involved with me and Dreamworks.

I am doing this to further honor Bruce. It was one thing to make "Dragon" but this will be the Man himself, alive for those of us that didn't get enough and the new generations who should know what he was all about.

Sincere regards,

Rob. Cohen

Yes, Digital Domain is working on it, and from what I've seen, he looks amazing.. Remember What DD did with Vin Diesel in xXx? The scenes of Vin jumping the motorcycle over the fence and similar scenes where you do see him? That's a digital Vin head. I recall attending a Siggraph presentation a couple of years ago where the DD artists described their technique of creating the digital Vin head, and comped his head over the stunt motorcycle guys helmet. Some tricky paintwork, as well as some really well done digital head fakery. The before and afters and description of the technique got a big applause. They did it, IIRC, using a combination of subsurface scattering and painted texture maps. Overall very cool stuff. Well, that was four years ago, and technology and technique have advanced and changed.. So imagine Bruce Lee, really there, full face, and articulate, with all his mannerisms. There are a ton of Bruce Lee fans, so getting everything right is going to be tough. I hope they pull it off really well. It's going to be a big challenge to jump the zombie divide.. Square got right into the uncanny valley with Final Fantasy, here's hoping that DD can pull it out. It's one thing to make a great turntable photorealistic head, it's another to make it move and fool the mind's eye.