The upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” marks Harrison Ford’s fifth and final outing as the iconic archaeologist and adventurer character, a role he first played over forty years ago.
Whilst the majority of Dr. Jones’ adventures took place in the late 1930s when the character was also in his late thirties, the new one unfolds in 1969 with Ford (now 80) playing a 70-year-old Dr. Jones.
There is, however, an extended sequence that takes place in 1944 when the character is aged 45. As a result, the production team uses artificial intelligence and de-aging technology to digitally shave 35 years off of Harrison Ford’s face.
The tech has been used in various works before and sometimes has been stellar such as “Blade Runner 2049” and “Ant-Man”, whereas other times it can get rather patchy such as the very young De Niro scenes in “The Irishman” or young Downey Jr. in “Captain America: Civil War”.
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week to promote his roles on shows “1923” and “Shrinking,” Ford elaborated on the process that went into de-aging him for the opening scene:
“That is my actual face at that age. They have this artificial intelligence program. It can go through every foot of film Lucasfilm owns. Because I did a bunch of movies for them, they have all this footage, including film that wasn’t printed. They could mine it from where the light is coming from, the expression. But that’s my actual face. I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make it. It’s fantastic.”
The actor recently re-affirmed his stance that the fifth Indy will be his last. Speaking at the premiere of “Shrinking” the other day, Ford told Variety: “I always wanted to do it, I wanted to do the rest of the story to see the end of his career. It’s the last time for me.”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is slated to open in cinemas on June 30th.
