I wonder if CGI technology - in both visuals, and voice recreation - has advanced enough to undetectably use a virtual Hoffman in the remaining scenes.
When you consider the possibilities of having the character “speak” his lines at a distance from the camera, and/or using actual footage of Hoffman from previous shoots - just masking out the background and CGI-ing in facial movements - it isn’t as far fetched as one might think.
Wouldn’t they need permission from his family/partner?
How about if they replace him with an extra with a cape held over his face, as Ed Wood did with Bela Legosi in “Planet 9 From Outer Space”?
just an idea... trying to think out of the box here.
I think the Screen Actors Guild would have some issues with using a CGI replacement.
They got into a very big battle over this when Crispin Glover declined to appear in Back to the Future Part II.
They hired some other actor to do an impersonation of him
in the part. It cheesed him off and now union rules
prohibit that.