When you live in La-La Land, the air naturally buzzes with chatter about the entertainment business. So the news today that Activision/Blizzard has recruited Kevin Spacey to narrate the trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - as well as to appear in the game - has raised the buzz level from "standard" to "hype cycle." The reason: well, it legitimizes the videogame business as an outlet for recognized talent.

The interesting thing to me, however, is that Kevin Spacey doesn't really appear in the trailer. Rather, it's his avatar - a digitized version of KS that its almost indistinguishable from the real thing. It seems like the capper on the collective unconscious of the Tinseltown nabobs, who have lately been obsessed with the nature of digital identity. (See: Her; Transcendence; anything featuring Andy Serkis, including the upcoming Star Wars 7.)

So, here's my question: What's going to happen to actors? Is their physical presence going to become irrelevant in the brave new world of digital filmmaking? Could they one day just build avatars and send them out on gigs? Who gets to belong to SAG - real Kevin Spacey or digital Kevin Spacey?

Lest you think I'm crazy, don't forget that James Cameron is making three more movies in an all-CGI world using actors whose movements have already been mapped into mo-cap suits. And Andy Serkis has declared that avatars- the acting kind, not the movies- should win Oscars. He'd have a lock on the category, for sure.