Harrison Ford embraces de-aged self in 'The Dial of Destiny'
Harrison Ford starrer Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, for which he received a resounding five-minute standing ovation. The film also featured a flashback appearance of Ford's Jones from 35 years ago. During a recent press conference, he defended the de-aging process he underwent and dispelled any notion of it being a "mere product of digital manipulation."
Why does this story matter?
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is slated to hit theaters on June 30. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm, the film is arriving 15 years after the previous outing, which was released in May 2008. Ford has mentioned to Total Film that this installment will be the last time he will essay the character and adventures of Jones.
'Technology seems very realistic,' says Ford
Ford shared his thoughts on the de-aging technology employed to make him appear younger. The actor said, "The technology has evolved to the point where to me, seems very realistic." "It's not a kind of photoshop magic, that's what I looked like 35 years ago because Lucasfilm has every frame of film that we've made together over all of these years," he added.
What is de-aging technology?
Until the lower-resolution film era, makeup artists mastered actor transformations to change appearances. With the advent of advanced technology and high-resolution movie production, makeup alone was no longer sufficient to conceal age. This is where de-aging technology was introduced. De-aging is a 3D effect technology employed to make actors appear younger onscreen. Technically speaking, post-production studios utilize image editing or computer-generated imagery (CGI) overlays.
'X-Men: The Last Stand,' 1st Hollywood movie to utilize de-aging
De-aging is a relatively new phenomenon in filmmaking, with its earliest notable use dating back to the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand. In this film, actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan were de-aged for a flashback scene featuring their characters—Professor X and Magneto, respectively. Since then, more films have been utilizing it to portray characters at a younger age—sometimes up to 20 years.
Disney, prominent studio that pushed de-aging forward
Disney is one of the prominent studios that has pushed the use of de-aging. Depending on the specific project, Disney has embraced the technology, such as in films like Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, where it predominantly relied on CGI and VFX. However, in the case of Skywalker's appearance in The Mandalorian, Disney took a different approach and employed the deepfake technology.
When de-aging techniques went wrong; ended up comically unbelievable
De-aging techniques are not always perfect! Sometimes, they end up looking comically unbelievable. To recall, the 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine became a laughing stock because of the digitally de-aged Professor Xavier. Similar to this happened to 2015's Terminator Genisys, which featured the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but his character's de-aging in one of the scenes ended up being unbelievably comical.
