Given Holm’s passing in 2020, his appearance was simultaneously unexpected and an impressive technical feat.
His presence undoubtedly helpedAlien: Romulusevoke the sense of nostalgia that Alvarez was obviously striving for.
This was no easy feat, but it was adecision rooted inAlvarez’s true appreciation for theAlienfilms.
Without this explicit permission, Holm likely wouldn’t have featured.
A complete three-dimensional replica of an actor is taken and then manipulated for the big screen.
The film crew went back to the drawing board, finding themselves in middle earth.
Original SR Image by Shawn Lealos.
With this older mold, the talented team at Legacy were able to manufacture an entirely new animatronic character.
They only had a head cast to work with fromLOTR, but it proved to be enough.
In simple math:95 percent of Rook was created from practical effects, the other 5 percent were CGI.
Custom Image by Robert Pitman
The end result is a very detailed and life-like Ian Holm.
Eventually, they settled on having British actor Daniel Betts help with recording all the facial capture of Rook.
It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the effect was surprisingly realistic.
Alvarez has defended his decision to raise the dead.
“He loved this character in particular.”
Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin in the originalStar Wars, died in 1994.Rogue Onecame out in 2016.
Like Ian Holm, Cushing’s estate approved his use inRogue One.
A more recent example was whenGhostbusters: Afterlifebrought back Harold Ramis as a ghost.
Ramis played Egon Spengler in the originalGhostbustersmovies, and the new films follow his daughter and grandchildren.
Custom Image by Robert Pitman
Bringing back Egon also gave all four original Ghostbusters a chance to reunite, although Ramis died in 2014.
Fans more readily accepted this than the Peter Cushing revival.
The most tragic came when Brandon Lee died while shootingThe Crow.
