Robert Zemeckis is reuniting with his “Forrest Gump” stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright for another decades-spanning epic, “Here.”
This time, though, both Hanks and Wright are digitally de-aged with AI-assisted technology Metaphysic Live, which face-swaps in real time. For example, Wright was de-aged using footage from her at age 19 to be paired with her present-day performance.
“Here” is the story of a room and the events that have taken place there over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. Hanks and Wright play a couple who spend their whole adult lives in that house; the film also includes other tenants played by Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Dockery, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and David Fynn.
The feature is based on Richard McGuire’s graphic novel of the same name, which was released by Pantheon Books in 2014 starting with a six-page comic strip McGuire originally published in 1989.
“Here” features a new score by writer/director/producer Zemeckis’ frequent collaborator Alan Silvestri. The film was produced by Jack Rapke, Bill Block, and Derek Hogue, along with Zemeckis.
The director opted to use the AI technology after Metaphysic’s 2022 appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” where company co-founders Tom Graham and Chris Ume created a photorealistic avatar of Elvis Presley. Ume also went viral on TikTok with deepfake Tom Cruise videos and collaborating with “South Park” creators to make Peter Serafinowicz’s “Sassy Trump.”
“I’ve always been attracted to technology that helps me to tell a story,” Zemeckis said in a press release when announcing the partnership with Metaphysic. “With ‘Here,’ the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves. Metaphysic’s AI tools do exactly that, in ways that were previously impossible.”
Zemeckis later told Vanity Fair that the concept of “Here” was to be a stationary observer across centuries, with the camera never moving even as the actors age onscreen. According to the filmmaker, this was an unprecedented project.
“The single perspective never changes, but everything around it does,” Zemeckis said. “It’s actually never been done before. There are similar scenes in very early silent movies, before the language of montage was invented. But other than that, yeah, it was a risky venture.”
He added of the storyline, “I think that the film speaks to the truth that we have to accept that everything changes. Where we get in trouble is when we resist that reality of life, and then we get dug-in and miss out on opportunities. […] What passes by this view of the universe? I think it’s an interesting way to do a meditation on mortality. It taps into the universal theme that everything passes.”
“Here” premieres November 15 in theaters. Check out the trailer below.