Harrison Ford Will Be Digitally 'De-Aged' for New Indiana Jones Movie
by EG
It's been more than 40 years since Harrison Ford first played Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The actor is 80 years old now, but he'll still play the character in the upcoming franchise sequel, even if it takes a little bit of digital trickery. Ford will be digitally 'de-aged' for an opening sequence set at roughly the same time as Raiders before the film jumps forward to a more age-appropriate era. Read on for details.
“It’s not the years, it’s the mileage” moaned a weary Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Four decades later, there have been a lot more years, and a lot of mileage, on 80-year-old Ford.
So for the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones film director James Mangold (who took over helming the franchise from Steven Spielberg) has concocted a sequence where viewers will be able to experience Ford/Indy back in his prime.
According to an upcoming issue of Empire, the film’s opening will be set in 1944 – about eight years after the events in Raiders took place. De-aging technology will have Ford going up against Nazis in a castle. Old footage of the actor was utilized to help create the illusion, along with the actor’s original jacket from Raiders.
De-aging technology so far has been notoriously less-than believable, with actors ranging from Robert De Niro in The Irishman to Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 often appearing like stiff Polar Express versions of themselves.
But Ford insists the new film, which hasn’t yet revealed its title, successfully pulls off a retro Indy. “This is the first time I’ve seen [the technology] where I believe it,” the actor said. “It’s a little spooky. I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works.”
After the sequence, the film’s narrative will leap forward to 1969 – using Ford as his current self – and that’s when the bulk of the action takes place.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.