Bruce Willis, the actor of the "Die Hard" series, recently starred in a series of new ads for Russian phone operator and internet provider MegaFon. Interestingly, it wasn't himself who starred, but through DeepFake's face-changing technique.
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Using this facial generation technology, MegaFon placed Bruce Willis's face in the face of another actor, while Willis himself was safely staying at home in the United States, Russia Beyond reported. He did receive an "undeclared fee to license his facial features and to use his stubborn character in marketing campaigns," the report said. Russian advertising market experts estimate that the cost could be between $1 million and $2 million.
Vasili Bolshakov, Director of Brand and Marketing Communications at MegaFon, said: "The Bruce Willis character in the series will be created with the help of facial generation technology based on neural network algorithms. To achieve this, the engineers at Deepcake Studios chose a large selection of photos and videos featuring the celebrity. They have 34,000 content units that the neural network uses to create the Bruce Willis character. ”
Bolshakov also pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic is still a big problem, and it is a safe way to use actors' "stand-ins" instead of taking them abroad.
"We realize that we can present high-quality content instead of being the victim of the covid-19 pandemic that has limited travel around the world. Using the technology allows for faster and cheaper shooting than when a celebrity is there to shoot. ”
Bolshakov said he and his team aren't trying to mislead anyone with this new project, and he thinks seeing Bruce Willis, just like we remember, is a good thing for fans.
The series is said to consist of 15 episodes, the first of which was directed by Russian musician and filmmaker Ilya Neschuler, who also directed the 2021 film Nobody.
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