Actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright have reunited with their Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis in the highly-anticipated new film called Here.
While fans seem excited about the film, which chronicles the inhabitants of a single home over 100 years with the camera remaining in a fixed position throughout the entire duration of the 104-minute movie, the de-aging of the two stars is causing quite a polarizing debate online.
Sony Pictures released a first-look trailer featuring some scenes in which Hanks, 67, and Wright, 58, also play themselves as teenagers thanks to some CGI magic.
Watch the movie trailer for Here, here.
Here is based on the 2014 graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire and is the latest collaboration with Hanks and Zemeckis.
As a filmmaker, Zemeckis has given us such iconic cinematic masterpieces as the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), and Forrest Gump (1994), the latter of which starred Hanks and Wright and earned Zemeckis the Best Director Oscar.
In Vanity Fair's exclusive first-look at Here, Zemeckis explained how the camera never moves, zooms in or out, or even turns.
"The single perspective never changes, but everything around it does," he said, adding:
“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.”
“That’s the excitement of it,” Zemeckis added. “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.”
While the concept is certainly bold and refreshing, some viewers fixated on the de-aging of the stars.
In the upcoming drama, with a screenplay co-written by Zemeckis and Eric Roth, Hanks plays baby boomer Richard, and Wright is his late teenage girlfriend and future wife, Margaret.
The actors appear in various stages of their lives, spanning decades with the help of traditional makeup in addition to the latest digital de-aging technology.
Here are two stills of the actors in Here that have people talking the most.
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures
One user on X (formerly Twitter) noted that while they were looking forward to seeing how the graphic novel would translate to the screen, "the de-aging still feels Uncanny Valley-esque."
The uncanny valley effect is a phenomenon where people experience an unsettled feeling in response to humanoid robots or AI simulations that closely resemble people but fail to be entirely convincing—and instead border on creepy.
Audiences invoked the uncanny valley to describe Zemeckis' past works utilizing performance capture techniques, including 2009's A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey and Wright, and 2004's The Polar Express featuring Hanks as multiple characters when CGI was still in its infancy.
Fans weighed in after watching the trailer for Here.
“I’ve always been, for some reason, labeled as this visual effects guy. But those were always there to serve as the character arc,” Zemeckis told Vanity Fair.
“There’s always been a restlessness in trying. I’ve always thought that our job as filmmakers is to show the audience things that they don’t see in real life.”
He added:
“It only works because the performances are so good."
"Both Tom and Robin understood instantly that, ‘Okay, we have to go back and channel what we were like 50 years ago or 40 years ago, and we have to bring that energy, that kind of posture, and even raise our voices higher."
"That kind of thing.”
Moviegoers thought Zemeckis should focus more on emotional storytelling and rely less on special effects.
However, others thought advancements in special effects have come a long way and they heralded the return of the collaboration between the actors and Zemeckis.
What are your thoughts on the look of the de-aged actors?
Here opens nationwide in theaters on November 15.