Disney Sued for Bringing Actor Back From the Dead for "Star Wars" Movie

Should studios be able to resurrect dead actors?

Rogue None

After digitally recreating the late actor Peter Cushing's likeness for 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," Disney is being sued for doing so without the imperial commander's express permission.

As The Times of London reports, one of the actor's oldest friends, the producer Kevin Francis, has claimed that prior to his death in 1994, Cushing insisted that nobody could reproduce his likeness digitally without his explicit authorization.

Nevertheless, he was resurrected in just such a way — 22 years after dying from prostate cancer in real life — to reprise his role as the nefarious Grand Moff Tarkin, which Lucasfilm reconstructed using old footage from his live turn as the imperial governor in 1977's "A New Hope."

Along with suing Disney, Francis' production studio Tyburn Films is also suing its subsidiary Lucasfilm, which owns the rights to the "Star Wars" franchise, the since-deceased executors of Cushing's estate, and Associated International Management, the agency that represented the actor until his death more than 30 years ago.

Hi, Court

During the case, Disney told the United Kingdom's High Court that Cushing's contract didn't require prior permission to recreate his likeness and that the company had struck a deal with the actor's agent for about $36,000 to clear such use.

While seeking to get the suit thrown out, the entertainment conglomerate claimed that Francis, who also worked with the late "Frankenstein" and "Doctor Who" actor, was seeking "unjust enrichment" with his demand for damages of more than $650,000.

Nevertheless, the High Court agreed that the producer's suit could continue. Because the British court system is much more opaque than its American counterpart, we'll likely only hear more about it if Disney loses or is dealt another major blow like this one.

As such, we don't really know when the elderly producer even brought his suit against Disney. Given both that "Rogue One" came out nearly eight years ago and the word-of-mouth nature of his claim, however, it might be a difficult one for him to win.

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