Rage and Fury: Bruce Lee's Return to Film?

It started with video games. Game makers hired stars, then took their likenesses and digitally painted them into games. Bruce Willis was one of the first recruited for a video game called Apocalypse, with others following like martial arts star Jet Li who was "scanned" into a computer, then processed digitally. However now, director Rob Cohen will attempt something much more ambitious. He'll be using cutting edge technology to allow deceased star Bruce Lee to once again star in a feature film.

The movie called, Rage And Fury marks the second time Cohen has done a feature involving the legendary Bruce Lee. The first was Lee's biopic, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story which starred Jason Scott Lee and received critical acclaim and box office success. Now Cohen intends on creating a whole new story with Lee leading the action.

DreamWorks will produce and Lee's family is whole-heartedly endorsing the project. Apparently the pre-production includes exhaustive tests of the digital techniques utilized to achieve a perfect photo realistic Bruce Lee actor. Only until Cohen, producers and the Lee estate is satisfied with the CGI Bruce, will the film move forward.

Obviously this project brings up all sorts of fascinating questions.

Who's next? John Wayne? Marilyn Monroe? Steve McQueen? What deceased celebrity estate will endorse the next digital full-blown resurrection of a star?

We've actually seen John Wayne, Fred Astaire, even Marilyn "star" in TV ads. These were utilized with old film clips, digitally cleaning them up and inserting them into new footage. The film Forrest Gump used a similar process to have the title character interact with everyone from John F. Kennedy, to civil rights leaders, to sports greats. All these examples were either short form or employed as supporting bits to expand other stories. Now with Rage And Fury, the bold move of bringing back the likeness of a deceased celebrity will most likely debut in theatres as a major motion picture.

Here's another interesting angle on the technology: Why not take living, older celebrities and "de-age" them?

Older action stars, say Arnold Schwarznegger or Sylvester Stallone are still fit for their age, however with digital magic, their youthful looks could be restored. Stallone has directed & stars in the upcoming Rocky Balboa and apparently, he comes off energetic and well, however how fun would it be if we could see him as he looked in the 1970's? Say Arnie wants to do another Conan, but not Conan: The Golden Years. Arnie shoot the movie as his middle aged self, then in post production, POOF, the Arnold from the early 1980's emerges as youthful Conan.

The possibilities are endless. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy could be cast by JJ Abrams in his Star Trek film as Kirk and Spock, then digitally restored to their 1960's appearance or even younger. Against nature? Let them age gracefully? Perhaps, but if Rage And Fury succeeds with Bruce Lee reappearing on the silver screen, you can bet it's only the beginning of a brave new world of digital magic bringing more classic characters back into the spotlight.