Harrison Ford was de-aged for a 25-minute scene in the forthcoming fifth installment of Indiana Jones.
The trailer for Indiana Jones and Dial Of Destiny featured a jaw-dropping moment when a bag is pulled from Ford’s head to reveal a significantly younger version of him created through the use of VFX technology.
Director James Mangold revealed to Total Film magazine that there is actually a 25-minute-long sequence where the character of Jones is back to being 35. “It was an incredible technology, and, in many ways, I just didn’t think about it,” the director shared.
He continued: “I just focused on shooting what’s approximately a 25-minute opening extravaganza that was my chance to just let it rip. The goal was to give the audience a full-bodied taste of what they missed so much. Because then when the movie lands in 1969, they’re going to have to make an adjustment to what it is now, which is different from what it was.”
The Dial Of Destiny team had shared that new VFX technology was created for the film in order to de-age Ford, using artificial intelligence to comb through all of the decades-old footage the Lucasfilm studio had of him.
“But the technology involved is a whole other thing,” Mangold said. “We had hundreds of hours of footage of him in close-ups, in mediums, in wides, in every kind of lighting, night and day. I could shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35-year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced.”
When shooting the film, Mangold revealed that just shot Ford and he “pretended that he was 35,” calling the leading man “incredibly gifted and agile.”
Producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told Empire magazine: “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’.”
Ford previously confirmed this would be his last outing as the character, after footage debuted at Disney’s D23 Expo back in September.
Meanwhile, famed composer John Williams announced he will no longer be retiring after the release of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
When asked if he was really retiring from films, Williams replied: “Well, Steven is a lot of things. He’s a director, he’s a producer, he’s a studio head, he’s a writer, he’s a philanthropist, he’s an educator. One thing he isn’t, is a man you can say ‘no’ to,” implying that he’d be up for working on future projects with Spielberg.
Indiana Jones and Dial Of Destiny is set for release on June 30.
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