Published by Jeff Leins

Robert Zemeckis is planning yet another Christmas-themed motion capture movie.

The director of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol is considering a 3-D animated adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”  According to Pajiba’s source, it will not be a re-creation of the Tchaikovsky ballet.

Instead it will be a period piece set in 19th century Russia about the origins of the Nutcracker and the battle between the dolls and the mice.

Photograph by: Disney

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Meryl Streep as Abraham Lincoln?

Harrison Ford restored to his youth to continue as Indiana Jones?

Don't laugh. In the brave new Hollywood world of motion capture technology, anything is possible.

At least that's the view of Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, the producers behind the latest version of A Christmas Carol, a film which allows Jim Carrey to play not only Ebenezer Scrooge from childhood to crabbed old age but also the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.

These guys — along with director Robert Zemeckis who partners them in the production company dedicated to the process — see themselves as pioneers in a filmmaking revolution. They also have their detractors — critics skeptical of a technological process which captures an actor's physical performance digitally and then turns it over to technicians who heighten and embellish that performance, as well as fine-tuning the performer's physical appearance.

Steve Starkey calls it an art form.

So does Tom Hanks, who was a key component in the success of Zemeckis's first motion capture film, Polar Express. After seeing what technicians did with his performance, Hanks came away convinced that this was an exciting innovation. He also suggested that if Meryl Streep had the acting chops to play Abraham Lincoln, why not cast her?

Starkey doesn't think it's such an outlandish idea: if computer artists can convert Jim Carrey into the crabbed and aged Ebenezer Scrooge, they can turn Meryl Streep into a craggy, truly lincolnesque screen presence.

"If she is the appropriate person to go to for Abe Lincoln," we would definitely contemplate it," Sharkey says unblushingly.

"The process liberates us," adds Rapke, who's equally gung ho about the process.

Perhaps they're right. After getting away with turning a clothed Angelina Jolie into a nude seductress in Beowulf, perhaps anything goes.

In fact they see all sorts of interesting potential here. For example, motion capture could be a boon for aging stars who want to continue as exciting virile presences on the screen.

Rapke notes that had the process been around 25 years ago, Roger Moore, now 82, wouldn't have necessarily had to retire as James Bond. He could "very easily" have continued as long as he had the stamina to do the action scenes. And there would be no need to worry about an expanding waist line: that could be trimmed down. The same possibilities would have existed for Sean Connery, now 79.

Going back further into Hollywood's history, one finds the case of Hollywood's most famous Tarzan, Johnny Weismuller. In his early Thirties films, he was a trim and muscular heartthrob, but by the time he retired more than a decade later, his body had thickened. Had motion capture been available back then, that problem would have been resolved.

"As long as he could swim," Starkey says cheerfully. "You can understand the liberation not only for the filmmakers but for the actors themselves."

"If we had an actor in a continuing franchise, that actor could live on forever in the role," Rapke says. In fact, had Harrison Ford embraced motion capture, he wouldn't have needed to age for his last Indiana Jones movie.

For all their motion capture films so far, they have sought the best possible actors for the role. If there's necessary nipping and tucking and tweaking, everybody — including the performers — can worry about that afterwards.

"If we make the movie and the likeness is appropriate for the actor playing the character, then we're going to use that actor's likeness," says Rapke. "But if it's not appropriate, we won't. Look at Gary Oldman in A Christmas Carol. He plays Marley and he looks nothing like the Marley character."

ImageMovers Digital, the company they and Zemeckis recently created, has a mandate to develop 3-D performance capture films exclusively for Disney. In the process, they are continuing to build on the technology pioneered with Polar Express, a film which grossed more than $300 million internationally.

But Polar Express was a fantasy. It was the subsequent Zemeckis-directed Beowulf which fully revealed the possibilities of motion capture while also stoking up the controversy surrounding the process. This was the action epic which took  Ray Winstone, expanded his five-foot-ten frame to six-foot-six and tightened his waistline at the same time, while also giving him washboard abs and huge muscles.

"Isn't that the beauty of this art form — that you are no longer slave to your likeness?" asks Starkey, who says Winstone was hired for his acting skills, not for his looks. "In this art form, you can cast anybody — it's no longer based on their gender, their skin colour, their likeness, their weight, their height, their age — it doesn't make any difference."

Now Zemeckis is eyeing a eyeing a motion capture remake of The Beatles legendary animated film, Yellow Submarine.

"We are very excited about the possibility of making Yellow Submarine," Rapke says. "We are completely dedicated to making it. And subject to The Beatles' approval, we will be making the movie. We have acquired the rights from The Beatles as well as from EMI, and now we're developing character looks. It's a process, and if The Beatles approve of the looks, then we're going to make the movie."

However, news of the a Yellow Submarine remake has sparked a furious reaction on the Internet, particularly from fans who revere the original. The uproar is a further indication that the motion capture process remains controversial in some quarters. Some critics, while admiring Zemeckis's artistry greatly, see him as an obsessive in thrall to his own technological tool box.

Rapke says that Zemeckis's commitment to motion capture is less an obsession than a passion.

"We are dedicated to this art form and our studio, Disney, is the only one dedicated exclusively to the performance capture art we're pioneering. We believe in this art form and we're very excited about rolling back the frontiers."

By DAVID GERMAIN

In this film publicity image released by Disney, Ebenezer Scrooge, voiced by Jim Carrey, is shown in a scene from "A Christmas Carol." (AP Photo/Disney, ImageMovers Digital LLC)