When “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” opens in theaters this summer, it will have been more than half a century since Harrison Ford first donned the bullwhip and fedora in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But while the film will certainly address the toll that the passage of time has taken on the world’s greatest archeologist, fans will still get one last chance to see the young Indiana Jones in action.
At this point it’s no secret that the opening scene is a flashback that takes place in 1944 when the character was still 45 years old. The film’s creative team used de-aging technology to digitally shave 35 years off of Harrison Ford.
“My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,’” producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a recent interview detailing the opening scene. “We’re dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.’”
De-aging technology is famously hit or miss, so certain fans were understandably skeptical of the news. But Ford continues to sing the praises of the technology that he once called “spooky” as he reassures fans that the scene turned out well. Appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote his roles on “1923” and “Shrinking,” Ford elaborated on the process that went into de-aging him for the film’s opening scene.
“That is my actual face at that age,” Ford said. “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.”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” opens in theaters on Friday, June 30.
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