Will actors ever need to slim down/buff up again?

Surely part of the reason why Robert De Niro won an Oscar for his incredible performance in Martin Scorsese’s 'Raging Bull' was for physically altering his body to the extreme.

In pumping up envious muscle tone for the fight sequences and then contrasting that with severe weight gain for his portrayal of boxing champion turned overweight has-been Jake La Motta, De Niro cemented his reputation as an actor who would go to great lengths for his work.

Charlize Theron (‘Monster’), Vincent D’Onofrio (‘Full Metal Jacket’) and Christian Bale (‘The Machinist) have all given their health a back seat in return for a suitably expansive portrayal.

However some scientists in Germany have other ideas for the future generations of yoyo dieting stars.

Researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute have developed software that can make actors appear thinner, fatter, taller or more muscular on screen at the touch of a button.

MovieReshape can be used on pre-filmed material, as the team confirmed after adding even more muscles to a sequence in 'Baywatch' seamlessly. The program can alter other characteristics such as age with remarkable subtlety, it’s claimed.  

Christian Theobalt, one of the scientists who developed the software, told The Hollywood Reporter: "You could use it to do something similar to what they did to Brad Pitt on 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' making him younger or older but much faster and with less computing power. What would take days using conventional SFX software our model can do in a matter of hours."

Regardless of the attempt to distance itself from "conventional SFX software", this is a similar endeavour of tweaking a perfectly good existing formula to save time and money, removing some of the magic of the film along the way.

CGI has been around for decades and whenever a Hollywood blockbuster decides to centre an action sequence around a greenscreen, much of the kinetic energy of real life stunts and the thrill of imminent danger gets lost.

Naturally films like 'Avatar' push the envelope in the right direction, but more often than not it's an envelope full of cash being shoved away from the performers and on-set technicians back into the kitty of the studio to spend on advertising and haphazard use of 3D. The lack of visual reality in films which are otherwise playing it straight is another reason for audiences to disengage with the narrative – never a good sign.

MovieReshape still has a long road ahead before filmmakers and advertisers get to leave some flab on the cutting room floor, so at least until its first public presentation at the computer graphics conference Siggraph Asia in Seoul, South Korea in December, we'll have to make do with the real ups and downs of cinematic dieting.

Some software that eliminates scenery chewing is always welcome in the interim, however.

Please register with us to add your comments.

View the full archive