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Virtual Celebrity Productions is about to raise the dead - and famous. The ambitious Culver City, California-based start-up is the first agency dedicated exclusively to reanimating and licensing a stable of posthumous star talent. Using the deceased actor's lifecast, reconstructive 3-D modeling, and the body of a live actor, cofounders Jeffrey Lotman, Steve Tice, and their 15-person staff plan to finish resurrecting their first celebs later this year.
The Louis B. Mayers of the digital set have "signed" James Cagney, Vincent Price, W. C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Marlene Dietrich, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Sammy Davis Jr. Virtual Celebrity intends to cast the doppelgängers in TV commercials and feature films. "Hey, you want to make a movie with one of the Rat Pack?" asks Lotman. "OK, come to us. We own the rights." The concept puts a new spin on the old MGM slogan "more stars than there are in heaven."
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