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Source URL: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240701-new-tom-hanks-film-here-and-the-unsettling-new-de-aging-technology-keeping-stars-forever-young

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New Tom Hanks film Here and the unsettling 'de-aging' technology keeping stars forever young

New Tom Hanks film Here and the unsettling 'de-aging' technology keeping stars forever young

The veterandoświadczony actor's new movie Here sees him and Robin Wright looking like teenagerswyglądający jak nastolatkowie again. It's the latest use of technologynajnowsze zastosowanie technologii that could have far-reachingdalekosiężny, and damagingszkodliwy, consequences.

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Tom Hanks's next film, Here, is set in the far futureosadzony w dalekiej przyszłości, the distant past, and every time period in betweenkażdy okres czasu pomiędzy. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and adaptedzaadaptowany from Richard McGuire's graphic novel of the same name, it jumps throughprzeskakuje przez the history of one piece of land, as seen from a single viewpointpunkt widzenia over many thousands of years. Most of it, though, is about the decades when the area is part of an American house owned by a couple played by Hanks and Robin Wright.

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For fans of Forrest Gump (1994), the most significant aspect of the trailer, which debutedzadebiutował last week, was the reunion of its two stars along with its director Zemeckis. But what was just as notable was the digital de-ageingodmładzanie cyfrowe that allowed Hanks and Wright to play the characters from their teens upwardsod nastoletnich lat wzwyż. Hanks, now 67, is shown as being slim and fresh-facedmłodo wyglądający, with a thick head of curly hair, just as he was when he was in Splash and Bachelor Party (1984) all those years agowszystkie te lata temu. And if Zemeckis can achieve that effect in Here, how long can it be before such de-ageingodmładzanie cyfrowe is as common as using hair dye and make-up to knock a few years off an actor's apparent age?

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Zemeckis has always been fascinatedzafascynowany by how people and places change over the decades – just think of Forrest Gump itself, as well as his Back to the Future trilogy. He has also long been fascinatedzafascynowany by digital innovationinnowacja cyfrowa, which accounts for the creepy animated mannequinsmanekiny, created using real actors and motion capture technologytechnologia przechwytywania ruchu, in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), A Christmas Carol (2009) and the deeply weird Welcome to Marwen (2018).

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It's unsettlingniepokojący to think that, in the long termna dłuższą metę, actual superstars might be replaced by their AI doppelgangerssobowtóry, and that, in the short termna krótką metę, de-ageing might allow veterans of Hanks's generation to keep playing roles that should, by rightszgodnie z prawem, be given to up-and-coming actorswschodzący aktorzy. But it could easily happen: de-ageing has gone fromprzeszło od being a deridedwyśmiewany novelty to a useful film-making tool in fewer than 20 years.

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In 2006, visual-effects artists de-agedodmłodzili Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen pixel by pixelpiksel po pikselu in X-Men: The Last Stand, and the most widespreadpowszechny reaction was a smirk at how shiny and robotic they looked. The technology was employed sparinglyoszczędnie for years in such science-fiction fantasies as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Tron: Legacy (2010). Then, in 2019, it was a key componentkluczowy element of several major films.

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Some critics were excited by this high-tech reminder of how handsome Ford was in the 1980s. But many more were scepticalsceptyczny. When you're used to the sight of a lined and sagging face, it can be distracting to see its uncannyniesamowity, cyber-Botoxed counterpartcyber-Botoksowy odpowiednik. In The Irishman, it was laughable to hear Pesci refer toodnosić się do the 70-something De Niro as "the kid". And there was no mistaking that, wrinkle-removal asidepomijając usuwanie zmarszczek, he was broader, heavier and slower-moving than he was when he made Taxi Driver.

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Maybe not, but just as computer-generated settingsustawienia generowane komputerowo and computer-enhanced stunts have become the norm, de-aged actors will probably soon be the norm, too. What's striking for now, though, is how limited the uses of the technology have been. So far, de-ageing is still more of a gimmicksztuczka than a serious storytelling devicepoważne narzędzie narracyjne, and its primary purpose seems less to make characters appear younger, than to remind viewers of the films they saw when they were younger themselves.

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In most cases, then, de-ageingodmładzanie hasn't been used to extend superstars' careers, or to facilitate chronology-twistingzaburzający chronologię narratives – it's been used to trigger nostalgiawywołać nostalgię. Ironically for a technology that feels so futuristic and revolutionaryfuturystyczny i rewolucyjny, it's still fixatedzafiksowany on the past.

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Here will be released in US cinemaswydany w kinach w USA on 15 November.

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