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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens with a 25-minute sequence that features a de-aged Harrison Ford fighting Nazis. Director James Mangold revealed this and spoke more about the de-aging process in a recent interview with Total Film.
The movie opens in 1944, with Ford fighting his way out of a Nazi-occupied castle. Mangold said in the interview that he simply filmed Ford normally, with the artificial intelligence-powered de-aging software doing the work to make Ford look younger. Ford had to wear those little dots on his face to record his performance, but other than that, it was business as usual.
“I just shot him, and he just pretended that he was 35,” Mangold said of Ford, going on to describe the actor as “incredibly gifted and agile.”
To de-age Ford, the visual effects team pored over countless hours of footage of the actor in a range of shot types, “every kind of lighting,” and night and day sequences. Ford previously discussed how Lucasfilm used an advanced AI program to do the work.
Mangold said the technology not only worked well, but it came together quickly. “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,” Mangold said.
After the opening sequence, The Dial of Destiny skips forward in time to the year 1969 to continue the story.
Steven Spielberg–who directed all the previous Indiana Jones films–was originally lined up to direct The Dial of Destiny before dropping out. In addition to Ford, the movie stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, John Rhys-Davies, and Antonio Banderas. It releases June 30.
