By Frank Pallotta

• Posted Apr. 1, 2014 @ 9:00 amThe sudden deaths of Paul Walker and Philip Seymour Hoffman took place while both were in the middle of filming upcoming projects.As a result, upcoming films “Fast & Furious 7” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” will use special effects to replace and recreate the actors’ performances.

  They’re not the only two stars whose deaths forced Hollywood to use a mix of CGI and special effects to finish a film.Laurence Olivier was dead for 15 years when he starred in 2004’s “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”

  To find the perfect villain for 2004’s “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” director Kerry Conran chose to use one of the most famous actors of all time, Laurence Olivier.

  There was only one problem: Olivier had been dead for 15 years.

  The film’s star, Jude Law, told USA Today, filmmakers chose to go with Olivier because few actors — alive or dead — carried the fearsome weight of the famed British actor.

  To pull this off, the production recorded new dialogue by another actor and used archive footage to create the evil hologram, Dr. Totenkopf.

  Deleted scenes and a body double in bandages were used to hide Peter Seller’s death in 1982’s “The Trail of the Pink Panther.”

  For 1982’s “The Trail of the Pink Panther,” filmmakers had a tough decision to make.

  They could either replace Peter Sellers’ most-famous role of Inspector Clouseau or somehow use him for the film even though he died two years earlier.

  Filmmakers chose to use deleted scenes and archived footage from 1976’s “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” to fill in where Sellers would have played the famed sleuth. They even had a body double wear bandages over his face.

  The film was ultimately dedicated to Sellers, stating, “To Peter… the one and only Inspector Clouseau.”

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  http://www.thesuntimes.com/article/20140401/NEWS/304019996/-1/opinion/?tag=2