Bruce Willis, the star of the "Die Hard" series, shot a new series of commercials for Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon, but he did not personally participate, but used face-changing technology.
According to foreign media "Beyond Russia", MegaFon used face generation technology to digitize Bruce Willis's face and replace the face of another actor, and Willis himself only needed to stay safe at home in the United States. Beyond Russia noted that Willis did receive royalties for his portrait and the use of the Characters of Die Hard. Russian advertising market experts estimate that the cost could be between $1 million and $2 million.
Vasili Bolshakov, MegaFon's director of brand and marketing communications, said that to achieve this goal, deepcake studio engineers selected a large number of photos and videos of the actor, and their 34,000 units of content were used by neural networks to shape the character of Bruce Willis.
Bolshakov also noted that at a time when the coronavirus is still a big problem, it's safer to use face-swapping techniques instead of taking them overseas to shoot on location.
"We realized that we could deliver high-quality content without being limited by the pandemic's movements around the world. Using technology allows you to shoot content faster and cheaper than in situations where there are celebrities involved," Burshakov said.
The series will feature 15 episodes, the first of which was directed by Russian musician and filmmaker Ilya Naishuller, who directed the film Little People.