Hammer Horror doc director explains Peter Cushing's appearance in the film

Peter Cushing is brought back to life, in a way, through new Hammer Horror documentary Hammer Films: The Heroes, Legends and Monsters, and director Benjamin Field tells Yahoo UK how all "due diligence" was taken to ensure the late actor's inclusion was as ethical as possible.

The documentary charts the history of the iconic film studio which reached this status through its hugely popular horror films, often starring Cushing and Christopher Lee. At the end of the film —which airs on Sky Arts at 9pm on Halloween— a Tarot reader whose face is hidden throughout the documentary is unveiled as Cushing who delivers a classic line as his character Baron Frankenstein to close out the film.

It's a moment that has generated quite a vocal debate on the ethics of using AI and digital resurrection in film, amid ongoing concerns in Hollywood on the subject which was a cornerstone of the actors' strike in 2023. The news of Cushing's 'resurrection', despite his death in 1994, comes as Lucasfilm is being sued for using Cushing's likeness in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Robert Downey Jr threatened to sue "all future executives" who plan to recreate his likeness through AI.

Field explains the decision to include Cushing in the documentary was made out of necessity: "We had a last minute change of voice-over artist, Charles Dance obviously narrates the doc for us but initially we actually had a former Hammer actress by the name of Valerie Leon.

"When we first dreamt up the doc, I said I wanted to Charles Dance to narrate it and unfortunately because of availability, [and how] we were uncertain of what our financial situation was going to be at the point that we could hire, we held off and we went for Valerie Leon.

"In the end we decided when Charles Dance became available again we would go with our primary choice, and so he recorded voiceovers for us. But one of the things throughout the film is the Tarot dealer, who at the end when the hood reveal comes up was Valerie Leon, and [she] delivered the last line of voiceover in vision.

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"But Charles Dance, funny enough, didn't want to dress up as a tarot reader and because this decision was so late, we couldn't really change the length of the film. So we went 'Oh my God, I have no idea what to fill this with' and so the idea of populating that section with Peter Cushing was born."

"That's why, that was the genuine reason why we brought him in," Field adds. "We thought he was the most fitting candidate for us to have, the audio is taken from lines of dialogue that he spoke in Frankenstein, and with that [idea] of that resurrection of Hammer that is contextually accurate within the film we felt that Baron Frankenstein was probably the right person to bring in there.

"There is a distinction that we make on our side, whether or not it is made by others that's for them to draw their own conclusions, but for us that is not Peter Cushing that is Baron Frankenstein. Somebody who is fairly integral in resurrecting the dead, and so for us it made sense."

Cushing's Baron Frankenstein was placed onto Leon's face through visual effects, which replaced Leon's head with footage of the actor in character with audio from his performance "spliced" together.

"There is a level of deep fake attached to that," Field explains. "But it's not a traditional deep fake in the true sense of the word, it is actually a photo manipulation is what that is."

Field writes the policy on what is "ethical, legal and responsible when it comes to the inclusion of AI within TV and film" in the UK, which he does for all trade organisations like Actors Equity. As a result he was perfectly aware of what requirements were needed in order to include Cushing in the Hammer documentary, even if it was more of a photo manipulation than the idea of AI people have in their minds.

"I'm obviously in a position to to know what the requirements are when you are looking for consent to do this kind of work, and the first thing I said to Hammer was that if we are going to do this then we need the estate's permission.

"Hammer went away and spoke to the estate and they were able to grant me permission for the use of his digital likeness and all of the insurance that went with that. So I was satisfied that we had what we needed to in order to proceed."

Field feels that the questioning around Cushing's appearance in the documentary is because of the ongoing debate of AI in art: "I think the reason that it's noisy is the fact that we've captured a moment in time really.

"I've done these before, I did Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted where I used deep fake to bring Gerry Anderson back in order to explain his story, and that was two years ago, there have been a number of deep fakes done since then within the TV and film sphere. We're not pioneering this stuff anymore.

"But I think, had I have not spent nearly all of yesterday and the day before discussing AI Michael Parkinson, then potentially it wouldn't be in the public consciousness quite as much as it currently is. So, bearing in mind for the whole of the British public have had this forced idea of of AI taking over the world because we've been on the news talking about creating Michael Parkinson... it sort of compounds that feeling of 'oh God, AI is coming and it's going to kill us all'.

"I think really we've just captured a moment, we have to obviously acknowledge that historically there is some kind of dispute between Disney and another party over the Cushing's likeness rights."

Lucasfilm is facing a lawsuit from Cushing's friend Kevin Francis, who argues the company and Rogue One producer Lunak Heavy Industries did not have the right to reproduce the late actor's likeness in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016. The film features Cushing's character Grand Moff Tarkin, which was created using visual effects.

Field goes on: "I'm not involved in that and I'm absolutely not about to be drawn into a conversation about it, I don't understand what's going on over there, I'm not party to any of that information. So there's obviously some ongoing intrigue around the Cushing likeness rights.

"All I can say is that I have got all the permissions that I need in order to do what we have done, and if anybody else feels that we needed to to get more well that's a different conversation.

"But when you approach the estate and you're granting permission by the people you need, and they're happy to provide all of that documentation for you, I can only go so far and do my due diligence — and I've done my due diligence."

The director also shared his thoughts on Downey Jr's recent remarks about suing anyone who tries to use AI to recreate his likeness, saying: "It's absolutely great because what you have there is the ability to make a decision, an informed choice about whether or not you want something. And there will be decisions that are forever taken after we die, about who we are — be it the most baseline thing of if you don't write down whether you want to be cremated or buried somebody else makes that decision, and so on and so forth.

"So I think everybody has an idea of how they think individuals rights ought to be respected, but they don't actually want those rights to be enacted by anybody other than themselves."

Hammer Films: The Heroes, Legends and Monsters airs on Sky Arts at 9pm on 31, October.