Making Millions on Dead Celebrities in the AI Age

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Mark Roesler, founder and chairman of CMG Worldwide, to discuss how AI has added a new twist to how the rights of dead famous people are being exploited. They discuss how incredibly valuable these rights are and how new technology is changing the way name, image, and likeness are being enabled to resurrect dead stars. They highlight a few recent examples, including James Earl Jones in the new ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ film, as well as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in a commercial for a new brand of gin. Mark explains how these deceased celebrities are protected in the age of AI and who is making the decision to exploit these rights (02:33). Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ (26:20). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! [email protected] Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Mark Roesler Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Bill Simmons. I am thrilled to announce our newest YouTube channel. It's called
0:03.7	Ringer Movies. If you're a fan of our movie coverage here at the Ringer, then you're in luck,
0:08.1	because every episode of The Rewatchables and The Big Picture, now on YouTube.
0:12.8	Like Bill said, Ringer movies will feature full episodes of my show, The Big Picture,
0:16.3	the Rewatchables, as well as special live episodes, deep dives into movie history, and a bunch of other fun stuff featuring other movie-loving ringer personalities.
0:23.6	Search Ringer movies on YouTube and Experience the Joy, Chris Ryan impersonating Wayne Jenkins on camera.
0:29.6	It is Wednesday, December 18th.
0:33.6	If you watch the new Lion King movie, you might notice that at the beginning, you hear
0:38.0	James Earl Jones's voice as Mufasa. You might also know that James Earl Jones passed away
0:43.8	earlier this year, and before that, he had signed over rights to his voice for Darth Vader
0:48.3	to a Ukrainian AI company that worked with Disney to recreate the character in the Obi-1
0:53.9	Kenobi show on Disney Plus
0:55.4	a couple years ago. Disney based the new Mufasa performance on James Earl Jones's voice
1:00.4	from the 2019 Lion King, and it's pretty seamless. AI is adding a new twist on the booming
1:07.4	business of exploiting the rights of deceased famous people, trademarks,
1:11.7	copyrights, and various rights of publicity like name, image, and likeness.
1:15.3	They're all incredibly valuable as technology enables the resurrection of dead stars from
1:20.8	booze commercials to music performances to, yes, Star Wars shows.
1:25.9	I wanted to do an episode on the IP rights of dead celebrities and
1:29.2	specifically how those rights are being exploited and protected in the age of AI. So I've got Mark
1:34.2	Rossler on the show. He's a lawyer and his company, CMG Worldwide, is one of the top shops for
1:39.4	celebrity branding, marketing, licensing, clearances, IP management, all that stuff, especially when it
	...

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