Director Raising Funds For Test Case

Director Robert Zemeckis is raising money to take a test case on digital alteration of film to the Supreme Court, having discovered how easy it was to recreate history when he made “Forrest Gump” with manipulated footage of public figures such as Presidents Kennedy and Nixon.

“The new technology can be dangerous,” Zemeckis told The Hollywood Reporter. “You can digitize actors, change what they are saying, create anything you want. There are serious ethical questions to be answered here. How is the moving image going to be perceived? It can no longer be perceived as truth just because it appears on screen.”

Zemeckis, known for pushing the limits of the special-effects envelope, is nonetheless concerned about what will grow from the seeds he’s planted.

Zemeckis will have some time for causes, as the Academy Award frontrunner said he is taking a sabbatical from moviemaking for a year. “I’m just taking it easy for a year,” he said.

“You can take the Rodney King footage and make him white and all the officers black,” Zemeckis said. “A future political regime could make subtle changes to alter the perception of the past, starting with something like films on the Red Menace of the ‘50s or the Vietnam War. We don’t want history rewritten just because it can be.”

Zemeckis noted that a film’s copyright owner has the right to alter a film in many cases, even if the actor or director objects.