SIMONE' CGI Actresses' Niccol and Pacino' What's Going On Here'

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some rumblings from the Lab.

It’s strange, the way it works with news stories these days. Watching a story spread from its original source can be fascinating in the digital age. For example, you can go to The Hollywood Reporter website or follow this link to read the original story that was written by Zorianna Kit on Monday of this week, a story that got picked up here, here, here, and here, just for starters. It’s easy to see why, too. Kit built a really solid scoop out of some pretty tricky leads, and SIMONE is definitely a sexy project the way she describes it. Al Pacino starring for GATTACA’s Andrew Niccol with an all-CG actress. Very interesting, very promising...

And not true.

Don’t get me wrong. Kit did her legwork correctly. The story that is being put out now is that Andy Niccol saw rough footage from FINAL FANTASY and decided that it’s possible to use a photorealistic actress that he creates instead of casting a real actress in the lead role in his film. It’s a great story. It immediately draws people in, creates a buzz around this film.

Over the last few days, though, I’ve had some very interesting conversations with FX artists from around town, guys running major divisions at major FX houses, and we’ve discussed the idea of a photorealistic lead actor, the Niccol project in particular, FINAL FANTASY, and other topics.

The first thing that became evident is that the official story about Niccol’s decision doesn’t add up. SIMONE is a project that has always been centered around creating a CG lead actress. It’s part of the film. This isn’t a case of Niccol casting the CG character as someone real. No... this is a film about a director who literally creates the perfect woman. It’s actually one of a few competing projects centered around similar ideas. Niccol has been quietly talking to FX houses since late last year regarding the technology needed to make this film. Just why do you think he was looking at FINAL FANTASY footage in the first place?

Now, I know many of you have seen the FINAL FANTASY clips online, and there’s been much debate back and forth over the work. Personally, I think it’s lovely, but it is in no way, shape, form, or fashion anything even resembling what I would call “photoreal.” In fact, it’s so heightened, so stylized, that I can’t even begin to make the case for it as something that would fool me if set side by side with a real actor. I’ve seen FINAL FANTASY stuff projected, too, on a giant screen, looking great. It’s going to be a wild visual ride when it’s ready... but it certainly hasn’t brought us to the point of creating convincing actors.

That’s why it cracked me up when E!Online’s Josh Grossberg added a comment from Screen Actor’s Guild representative Greg Krizman to his story:

"It's not a big deal when it's an animated movie, but in the case of this thing an actor is losing his job," says SAG spokesman Greg Krizman.

Of course, Krizman has his own opinion of Simone's new costar, "I figure it's a marketing ploy basically."

I’m wondering at what point the Screen Actor’s Guild is going to stop defaming animation performers. This is hardly the first time they’ve talked about animation and suggested that there are no actors involved. Even if Niccol were using a CG character in his lead (and we’ll get to that in a moment), there would still be a vocal performer involved. And Niccol makes mention of motion capture technology in one of the stories I read, meaning there would have to be someone actually performing there, as well. So now we’ve got two actors employed for one job. Shouldn’t they be celebrating that there’s actually one extra person working? Or is all of this too complicated?

Now... here’s where we start to move into conjecture and information that comes from sources I would characterize as “nervous.” There's really sensitive issues involved here, so let's couch some of this as questions instead of answers. In talking with guys at the leading companies in the business, the guys whose job it is to take us from animation to photorealistic digital characters, one thing has become abundantly clear. It's not time. The technology is not there. Not at any shop in the business. For those of you who haven't been to Seattle's new Paul Allen Rock'n'Roll experience exhibit, there's a digital James Brown that's part of the thing that Harry and I saw a rough version of at Digital Domain. Even unfinished, James was amazing. Was he real? No. But he did a remarkable job of reproducing a younger James Brown, putting us right there for something that can't be filmed now, something that had to be reproduced. Would it have fooled me if someone had told me it was period footage? No. As nice as it was, and as cutting-edge as the work was, my eye still isn't fooled. There is no greater hurdle for FX animators to overcome. There's a reason James Cameron didn't make AVATAR when he wanted to, and it wasn't just because the treatment leaked. It was because he is still unable to make a film that would match the thing he had in his head, and James isn't willing to make the film in a form that would be out of date inside two years.

So where does that leave Niccol? Is he out of his mind? Or is there another level of shell game going on here? What if Niccol decided to cast a real actress, flesh and blood, but shelter her completely from publicity? What if he continues to tell everyone that he's "made" the perfect girl? What if the film comes out and we are introduced to this character, this Simone, and told she is the result of a startling advance in CGI? And what if they play that out for as long as they can, only admitting the truth after wringing every possible bit of publicity out of the idea? Would you feel like you'd been conned? Would you think it was all very clever and just take it in stride as part of the great Hype Machine? Say he does use a completely CG actress and she's not photoreal. Will you still buy the premise of the movie? It'll be fascinating to see what people say when the first test screening reports roll in. How much you want to bet, "She's cool, but you can tell she's fake" in every single report? Unless, that is, she's real.

Hehehe... head games a-plenty. I'll tell you this... SIMONE is one of those projects that is on our radar now here at AICN, and it's one we'll be watching very closely. Niccol has no clue yet just how much sheer spy power we can bring to bear on this picture, and he's planning to try some interesting games. We're ready, Andy... let's play!!

"Moriarty" out.