British actor Ian Holm died in 2020, but his likeness appears in “Alien: Romulus,” partly thanks to generative AI. Fans are not happy about it — even though his family gave their blessing.
The 2024 movie follows a crew of scavengers who break into a derelict space station to steal supplies to help them flee their bleak mining colony for a peaceful planet.
When they break in, they discover that the company that owns the station, Weyland-Yutani, has experimented with the monstrous Xenomorphs, and they’re forced to fight for survival.
Along the way, scavenger Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her adopted android brother, Andy (David Jonsson), discover a half-melted robot called Rook (Holm). The robot is a nod to Holm’s character in the original “Alien” movie, Ash, who is programmed to do what’s best for the company rather than the crew. His 2024 counterpart, Rook, has the same purpose.
Holms could have appeared in a single scene, but he features in several scenes as a secondary antagonist. Some fans criticized how Holm’s appearance was executed, while others pointed out that he could not give his permission for his likeness to be used, arguing it could set a dangerous precedent.
However, his family gave their permission for Holm, who is also known for playing Bilbo Baggins in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise to appear in “Alien: Romulus.”
Referring to Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, director Fede Álvarez told The Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Monday: “In the last 10 years after ‘The Hobbit,’ Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him and his widow felt he would have loved to be a part of this. He loved this character in particular.”
Álvarez said: “We did it all with a lot of respect and always with the authorization of his family, his children and his widow, who said, ‘We would love to see his likeness again.'”
The director confirmed that “80 to 90%” of the shots were achieved using an animatronic supplemented with CGI, and generative AI to make another actor’s voice sound like Holm.
Álvarez continued: “We’re not bringing someone back to life and saying, ‘Ian would have done it that way.’ He would have obviously done it differently. We had an actor who was on the set, who worked on the dialogue, who worked with the actors. It’s not like we skipped hiring an actor.”
AI has become a hot topic in Hollywood in the last few years over concerns that it will put creatives out of work, which was a major concern of the SAG-AFTRA union strikes in 2023.
Some, like Scarlett Johansson, have taken a strong stance against the way AI can be used to co-opt a person’s voice or likeness. The “Avengers” star lawyered up in May 2024 when OpenAI revealed a voice that sounded similar to her after she declined to voice one of the company’s programs.
But Álvarez doesn’t think AI will be used to replace actors in the future largely because it’s more expensive than hiring an actor.
“Doing it this way requires a team of so many people and so many parts to get it done that it’s never going to be really convenient.”
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