You do not remember me

June 19, 2006 10:55 PM

Jor-El speaks. Cool clip from Rhythm + Hues studios detailing how they adapted footage of Brando from the original Superman flick for the upcoming Superman Returns. embedded quicktime, and via AICN
posted by WolfDaddy (46 comments total)

Just ... can't ... get it to work.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:11 PM on June 19, 2006

AZ, can you right click on the "Jor-El speaks" link and save it?

I had thought to spare MeFi AICN's bloviations, but here's the page from which I stole the link.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:15 PM on June 19, 2006

Works fine here. Great clip, too - nice find.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:29 PM on June 19, 2006

This just brings to mind science fiction imaginings about what the 'future' are going to do with/to 'us' when digital archaeologists uncover our residual data. This must have some weird copyright permutations too, no?
posted by peacay at 11:44 PM on June 19, 2006

Wow, that was amazingly, excessively creepy.
posted by Mr. Six at 11:45 PM on June 19, 2006

Kal El... You .... could ... have been a contender.
posted by seanyboy at 11:56 PM on June 19, 2006

Won't work for me either. Right click and "save target" just lands a 177 byte file which won't open on my desktop.
posted by scarabic at 12:06 AM on June 20, 2006

try it in WMV format
posted by pruner at 12:10 AM on June 20, 2006

Here you are.

right-click, save
posted by basicchannel at 12:29 AM on June 20, 2006

That music was a bit much.
posted by delmoi at 12:44 AM on June 20, 2006

Very convincing. Now I don't remember him.
posted by tellurian at 12:45 AM on June 20, 2006

scarabic: for the future if you get a small file like that when trying to download a movie have a look at it in a text editor. You'll probably find the true location of the movie inside.
posted by edd at 12:47 AM on June 20, 2006

Pretty cool, although the lip sync doesn't look right for me (maybe just a problem with my player).

Reminded me of the ad with Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he starts hawking DirecTV midway through the scene. Although, upon further research, it appears that that isn't the same at all.
posted by bjrubble at 1:36 AM on June 20, 2006

Reminded me of the ad with Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he starts hawking DirecTV midway through the scene. Although, upon further research, it appears that that isn't the same at all.

I immediately figured that they had simply re-shot those scenes. It's intresting that people in this day and age would assume that they were done with some kind of CG magic. I guess I missed out on a free year of direct TV...
posted by delmoi at 2:06 AM on June 20, 2006

That music was a bit much.

I second that emotion. R&H guys, keep it upbeat, please.
posted by zardoz at 2:17 AM on June 20, 2006

...still, this is the one popcorn movie I'm looking forward to. Loved the original, and I think Brian Singer is a darn fine director.

(what's with the group of people behind Clark in the Fortress of Solitude, though?!)
posted by zardoz at 2:21 AM on June 20, 2006

Nice clip, WD. But it made me wonder if Singer always intended to have Brando "speak" within the icicle. If so, why take such pains to recreate facial textures and movements when any inconsistencies could be easily obscured with cracks and bubbles?
posted by rob511 at 2:42 AM on June 20, 2006

Excuse my laziness, but I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering why they brought Brando back instead of just getting a new actor. Anyone? I'm genuinely curious.
posted by teleskiving at 4:06 AM on June 20, 2006

(what's with the group of people behind Clark in the Fortress of Solitude, though?!)

I think that's Lex Luthor and his minions.
posted by EarBucket at 4:11 AM on June 20, 2006

Zardoz. It ain't Clark.
posted by filmgeek at 4:12 AM on June 20, 2006

rob511: I was thinking the exact same thing. They probably still needed the lipsync, but all that texturing? Why bother? As for why they brought Brando back, I think they are trying to tie in with the first two movies (which this is a sequel to).
posted by Orange Goblin at 4:30 AM on June 20, 2006

If they had only a half-baked Brando 2.0, and changed their minds about some of the scenes or exact the shape and color of the crystals, they'd be screwed. It's better have a 100% workable model, I guess. And it's probably something of a prestige project as well.
posted by Harry at 4:37 AM on June 20, 2006

Weirdest thing about this is that the inside of Marlon Brando's head looks like Pierce Brosnan (~2.27 mins). I wonder if he knew.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 4:51 AM on June 20, 2006

"It's impossible for words...to describe...to those...who do not know....what...horror...means-"

*bzzt*

"-They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you...my only son."
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:00 AM on June 20, 2006

I may sound supercriticial by saying this, but it still looks like "the best we could do" motion capture for video games to me... surely it works behind a crystal column, but we're still a distance away from Brando reprising his Godfather role believably.
posted by VulcanMike at 5:33 AM on June 20, 2006

They COULD have just had some old footage of Brando in the crystals and botched it a bit, obscuring the mouth so that it doesn't have to sync up, but that's all a bit Zordon from Power Rangers isn't it?

Much better to have a nice shiney fully working brando for the scene so that it can be viewed from whatever angle and look however you want it to look.

Anyone who says its not very good is clearly delusional: they should be strapped to a Flame work-station and forced to stay until they either produce something better or chew their own eyelids off....
posted by Meccabilly at 6:17 AM on June 20, 2006

Well hrm. Now I have second thoughts about going to see this.

Brando and Hackman were paid huge sums of money because the original didn't have anything beyond an incoherent script to land funding. I can't imagine why the need to bring back an echo given the new actors.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:18 AM on June 20, 2006

I don't think that's the reason, KirkJobSluder. Isn't it obvious that it's just the showiness of the new technology? The challenge and presitge of having actually pulled this off? And because it's Brando? An old friend from NYU co-wrote the screenplay, too, and he does have some talent.
posted by ghastlyfop at 6:30 AM on June 20, 2006

to me, the "you do not" part of "you do not remember me" doesn't look right.
posted by chococat at 6:39 AM on June 20, 2006

Are people seriously asking why someone would want to 'bring back' the man widely considered America's finest screen actor, even for a cameo? All else aside, the first Superman is a beloved film among a certain set (not just the AICN idiots), and any throwback to it will deepen the nostalgia that surrounds the new movie. Nostalgia being, one might argue, the central emotional goal of any Superman story.
posted by waxbanks at 6:57 AM on June 20, 2006

Also: that was totally creepy and exciting in an 'Engineers are so cool but remember that with great power comes great responsibility!!' kind of way.
posted by waxbanks at 6:58 AM on June 20, 2006

The ice spires looked a lot less realistic than the dead man as a giant hologram, which is saying something.
Why wouldn't you want Brando in a film? He was better silent and motionless than most other actors are given free range and an indulgent co-star.


...I gotta say the tonsorial icecream takes away from this slightly. Fits with the arctic cave ambience, though.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 7:12 AM on June 20, 2006

Excuse my laziness, but I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering why they brought Brando back instead of just getting a new actor. Anyone? I'm genuinely curious.

I'm just spitballing here, but Richard Corliss writes:

Earlier versions of Superman stressed the hero's humanity: his attachment to his Earth parents, his country-boy clumsiness around Lois. The Singer version emphasizes his divinity. He is not a super man; he is a god (named Kal-El), sent by his heavenly father (Jor-El) to protect Earth. That is a mission that takes more than muscles; it requires sacrifice, perhaps of his own life. So he is no simple comic-book hunk. He is Earth's savior: Jesus Christ Superman.

In terms of Hollywood movies, Dead Brando is a pretty good shorthand for God.

Apart from that, I think it's a pretty dumb idea, especially if it (as I fear it does) belie that Singer's film is built too squarely on reverence for the Donner version (which I still think is only OK).
posted by blueshammer at 7:31 AM on June 20, 2006

Damn that's awesome.

Begs the question - Why won't someone use this sort of shit for some Yippie politic stuff?
posted by Peter H at 8:45 AM on June 20, 2006

*cue Doors ‘The End’*

"At first, I thought they handed me the wrong CGI. I couldn't believe they wanted this man rescreened.
Third generation Stanislavski method, top of his class. Broadway, Actor’s Studio. Eight Oscar nominations. About a thousand decorations. Etc, etc...
I'd heard his voice in The Godfather and it really put a hook in me. But I couldn't connect up that film with this man. Like they said, he had an impressive career. Maybe too impressive... I mean perfect.
He was being groomed for one of the top slots in Hollywood. Mogul, Key Grip union rep, anything...
In 1972 he returned from his iconic portrayal of Don Corleone and things started to slip.
He had Sacheen Littlefeather deliver his speech the Academy Awards.
The report to Paramount pictures and Francis Ford Coppola was restricted. Seems they didn't dig what he had to tell them.
During the next few years he made three requests for transfer to a Salkind brothers film directed by William Donner where he would play Jor-El, the father to an alien orphan sent from his dying planet to become Earth’s greatest hereo. He was finally accepted.
Superman?...He was 54 years old....Why the fuck would he do that?
2006, dead two years he revisits his role as Jor El, returns to Superman...

Brando got off the boat. He split from the whole fucking program. How did that happen?
The more I read and began to understand, the more I admired him. His family and friends couldn't understand it, and they couldn't talk him out of it. He had to apply three times and put up with a ton of shit, but he got the Salkind brothers to pony up a $3.7 million against 10% of the gross for 13 days work. The next youngest guy up for the role was half his weight. They must have thought he was some far-out old man humping it over that film.
That tough motherfucker. He finished. He could have gone for another Oscar, but factoring for inflation he made more in straight salary than Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:02 AM on June 20, 2006 [3 favorites]

Look, people. Brando's legs should be blurry -- there's no way he could be running from the... oh.

Wait, nevermind, wrong thread.
posted by verb at 9:14 AM on June 20, 2006

*puts smedleyman in the shower*
posted by sgt.serenity at 9:14 AM on June 20, 2006

I'm guessing CGI Brando was cheaper than hiring a contemporary name-brand actor. Plus, there's the gee-whiz factor affecting ticket sales of "I wanna see how they brought Brando back," which I'd estimate to be non-trivial.
posted by Eideteker at 9:46 AM on June 20, 2006

I think this is really great, I think the movie will be great, just to see the messianic Superman thing. It really brings a new dimension to it -- I didn't think about it at all when I was little, but it's really a brilliant story idea now that I'm "adult" (or at least older) and can look at it in this way given the right presentation.

I will definitely be seeing it. Jesus Christ Superman indeed.
posted by blacklite at 10:02 AM on June 20, 2006

I think it's so cool how they pretend to have recreated Brando via computer manipulation, when we all know that it was really the Earth-2 Brando who played the role.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:09 AM on June 20, 2006 [2 favorites]

Flagged blue_beetle as fantastic.
posted by Eideteker at 10:35 AM on June 20, 2006

*tosses Jimmy Olson's decapitated head into smedleyman's lap*
posted by kirkaracha at 11:22 AM on June 20, 2006

"Me no go see new movie. Me hate good movies."


- Bizarro Superman
posted by bigskyguy at 1:41 PM on June 20, 2006

Interesting clip. Speaking as one who grew up adoring Superman I & II, I have to say the nostalgia factor and the tie-in to those films is a big reason of why I'm interested in this one at all.

I don't think I cared a lick about it until I heard they were going to be integrating some of the original John Williams score into it (and then saw the first trailer where they used the Krypton theme behind the Brando monologue Smart Dalek quoted.) I'd go see it to see how they used the music alone. It'll totally be a nostalgia trip for me.
posted by Kosh at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2006

So the explanation of the visual is now established. What's the explanation for the audio? Brando impersonator? Repurposed dialogue? (from what?)
posted by FlunkedFlank at 9:47 PM on June 20, 2006

I think it's so cool how they pretend to have recreated Brando via computer manipulation, when we all know that it was really the Earth-2 Brando who played the role.

Crisis in the Infinite Brandos
posted by cortex at 10:24 PM on June 20, 2006