🎬 AI is Changing Hollywood: A New Film with Both Young and Old Tom Hanks Premieres Worldwide
The film "Here," directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away), has premiered worldwide, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.
"Here" tells the story of the Young family over 60 years. When a film spans such a long period, directors usually bring in different actors for younger and older versions of the characters or rely heavily on makeup, both costly and time-consuming solutions.
⏳ AI is Transforming Actor Aging and Cutting Budgets
AI has been making its way into the film industry for a few years. It has been used to de-age Harrison Ford in the latest Indiana Jones film and Robert De Niro in The Irishman. However, even with these advancements, the results took months in post-production.
Zemeckis is the first to use real-time deepfake AI technology, where footage from the camera is displayed on two monitors during filming: one with the raw feed and the other showing the actors at the exact age needed for the scene.
"We could not have made this movie five years ago," the director told Variety.
The Hollywood startup Metaphysic AI, whose AI model is used in "Here," became famous in 2021 for viral deepfake videos with "Tom Cruise." Metaphysic’s AI technology has already appeared in two major releases this year: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Alien: Romulus, where it was used to digitally "resurrect" actors who have passed away. These experiments, however, raise ethical questions.
🎥 The Future of Hollywood
Tom Hanks acknowledges the inevitability of AI’s role in Hollywood’s future. "They can go off and make movies starring me for the next 122 years if they want. Should they legally be allowed to? What happens to my estate? Listen, let’s figure out the language right now," the actor reflected in an interview with The New York Times Magazine.
But not everyone agrees. Robert Downey Jr., known for playing Tony Stark in Marvel films, recently stated he would instruct his lawyers to sue any studio executive who attempt to create digital replicas of him using AI after his death.
More on the topic:
➡️ AI and Movies: Forecasts from Netflix CEO, New AI Streaming Series, and The Last of Us
➡️ Top 10+1 Films on Artificial Intelligence for Inspiration
