Bruce Willis goes out for some coffee with a friend on Monday (October 17) in Santa Monica, Calif.
02.10.2022 - 22:17 / thewrap.com
On Saturday, representatives for Willis told BBC News that the actor had “no partnership or agreement” with the Russian company Deepcake to create a digital copy of himself using machine learning technology, with Deepcake itself confirming that no deal was in place. The supposed deal was first reported by The Daily Mail on Sep. 27.
“Bruce couldn’t sell anyone any rights, they are his by default,” a spokesperson for Deepcake said. Willis announced his retirement from acting this past March after being diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder that progressively damages one’s ability to communicate through speech and writing. Last year, Willis worked with Deepcake to create a “digital twin” of him for use in an ad for the Russian telecom company Megafon, but Deepcake says that was for a one-time only project.
The concept of artificial intelligence being used to recreate retired or deceased entertainers has become more prominent over the last decade, with rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg performing alongside a hologram of Tupac Shakur at Coachella in 2012. A 2014 live-action/animated hybrid drama “The Congress” explored the idea with Robin Wright playing a fictionalized version of herself as she sells the rights to a Hollywood studio to create a digital version of herself for use in future films.
Bruce Willis goes out for some coffee with a friend on Monday (October 17) in Santa Monica, Calif.
Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, posted a sweet recap of what her family was up to this summer. In the reel, set to the song "Bones" by Maren Morris, Willis can be seen hanging out with his wife and daughters, 10-year-old Mabel and 8-year-old Evelyn.
Bruce Willis' family is looking back on a «magic» summer with the actor following his aphasia diagnosis earlier this year. In a video shared to Instagram on Sunday, the actor's wife, Emma Heming Willis, shared a compilation of summer memories, featuring Bruce and their two daughters, Mabel, 10 and Evelyn, 8.The sweet family video, set to Maren Morris' «Bones,» sees Bruce goofing off with his girls, enjoying walks in the woods and sharing a kiss with his wife.
Bruce Willis and John Travolta will appear as rivals in their new action movie "Paradise City." In the film's trailer, which was released Wednesday, Willis plays a bounty hunter who is getting a little too old for the job but agrees to take on the extremely difficult and dangerous assignment to take down a crime lord in Hawaii, played by Travolta. After Willis’ character is thought to have died on the job, his son, played by Blake Jenner, teams up with his dad’s former partner, Stephen Dorff, to get revenge on those they believe carried out the killing.Their task is made all the more difficult because they still have to deal with Travolta’s character. This is the first time Travolta and Willis have worked together since first pairing up in 1994 for the Quentin Tarantino classic "Pulp Fiction." Travolta played a hitman in the film, and Willis played an aging boxer who killed Travolta’s character.They played two of the film's three protagonists.
Zack Sharf Bruce Willis did not sell his rights to a deepfake studio, despite reports of the contrary that recently went viral online. The Telegraph reported at the end of Sept. that Willis made history as “the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a ‘digital twin’ of himself to be created for use on screen.” While a “digital twin” of Willis was created by the deepfake company Deepcake to be used in an advertisement for the Russian telecoms company MegaFon, Deepcake does not own the rights to Willis’ image or to his “digital twin.” Willis’ representative confirmed to Variety that “there is no partnership or agreement that exists between Bruce and Deepcake.” A spokesperson for Deepcake told Variety the same, adding, “The rights to Bruce Willis’ image [and] to his Digital Twin belong to Bruce Willis and to him only.”
A deepfake of Bruce Willis sparked widespread confusion about AI technology and legal rights online - prompting the retired actor's agent to confirm that Willis did not sell the rights to his digital likeness. According to Reuters, a Russian firm called Deepcake created a realistic AI-generated image of Bruce Willis in a commercial for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, in 2021.
Bruce Willis has denied reports that he’d licensed the use of his image to a deepfake company, after formally announcing his retirement earlier in the year.Last week, the Daily Mail reported that Willis sold his likeness to Deepcake – a Russian company specialising in AI-powered content optimisation – shortly before he learned of his aphasia diagnosis. The actor’s condition was made public back in March, when a statement confirming it was shared alongside the news that Willis would retire from the film industry after 44 years.In their report, the Daily Mail claimed that Willis’ digital likeness had been licensed for use in future film projects, though his estate would have the final say in what projects it appeared in.
Accept no imitation! Bruce Willis denied reports that he sold the rights to his likeness to a deepfake company that would purportedly be creating a digital double of him to appear in future films.
Only Bruce Willis has the rights to Bruce Willis’s face, it transpires.
Bruce Willis‘ rep is speaking out after a recent report claimed that the actor had sold his digital likeness to Deepcake, a deepfake company.