Will Smith is going to war against a younger clone of himself in a movie that its filmmakers are calling, “Hollywood’s biggest leap forward yet”.
The film – Gemini Man – sees Will Smith go up against a younger version of himself.
While many films have used ‘de-ageing’ techniques to remove wrinkles on older stars, this film sees a 100 per cent CGI Smith – right down to his eerily realistic pores.
“In the past, we would have had Will Smith’s son play it — he would have been put in different hair and makeup, and we’d have called him a ‘clone’,” said director Ang Lee at the trailer’s reveal in Los Angeles. “But it doesn’t look good in this media.”
Gemini Man has been in development for more than twenty years, going from one studio to another, as well as several main stars. The new studio – Paramount – has said it was waiting for the technology to catch up with the plot.
The technology used in the film, which comes out in October, is similar to the new Lion King film – however, this is the first time it’s been used on a person.
According to effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer, the human face is one of the most complex things to CGI.
“Every single one of us is experts… over millions of years, the face is how we look at someone and tell that they’re lying to you or that there’s an illness,” he explained.
“The subtleties of what tells you that are subconscious. So for us to go in and try to recreate that digitally is really hard.”
You can watch the new trailer below, as well as a brief explanation at how this groundbreaking new CGI technique works:
