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But much of it is spooky. There is already talk of a movie using a computer- generated Marilyn Monroe. Predicts Williams: "Long-dead Presidents will be on TV, computer generated, giving speeches. Actors who died 50 years ago will be starring next to contemporary actors. We could even create actors who have never been born -- guys you don't have to pay points to or give trailers to. It will happen. And," he says, glancing around the ILM lab, "it will probably happen here."
Lest this young Einstein sound like a young Frankenstein, Williams adds that computer graphics can help make only better-looking movies, not better ones. "Essentially, this is another form of pencil," he says. "If it's in the hands of someone who can't draw, then it can't draw."
And Muren, the benign sorcerer, would like to teach the world to draw. He came late to computer graphics, taking a sabbatical in 1990 to learn the vocabulary. "Now I want kids to come up learning this stuff. I want everybody to think, 'Jeez, if he can do it, I can do it.' "
Why do you want that, O Merlin of the movies? "So they will grow up to make neater films for me to see later on."