I have been following this story for about two weeks now, working on gathering the info needed to make it to publication. I had planned for it to be about the first or second article I posted for That Park Place. Finally, I’m excited to tell you why Lucasfilm and James Mangold are so confident they can pull off Indiana Jones 5, even when the majority of the film (thus far) has been filmed without Harrison Ford as Dr. Jones.
For those out of the loop, Harrison Ford injured himself during an action scene filming involving a train. The injury was a reaggravation of an older injury, and could have resulted in surgery (and still may, that’s being kept secret). The Walt Disney Company released a statement about the situation, which mostly downplayed the severity. However, commentators such as myself and Grace Randolph were able to discover that the film crew was being told something entirely different. A six to eight week delay in filming for Ford (sans some green screen work) was instituted and the actor was seen walking around London in a sling.
We’re now in early August and Ford still has not done any significant filming. In his place, two actors were brought on board to play Indiana Jones. Each actor was covered in facial dots, just like Ford had been as well, with the intent to come back and apply a CGI mask to their faces in post production so that they’ll look just like Harrison Ford.
So why the dots all over Harrison Ford’s face?
The answer to that is that the movie has been delayed a long time over the past years, and being stuck in a pandemic didn’t help either. Harrison Ford looked a little too rough for the role, despite being incredibly in-shape for a 78 (now 79) year old. Thus, CGI is planned for basically the entirety of the film to de-age the superstar legend.
Well that’s a lot of CGI, right? In fact, it’s enough CGI that you would think producers would worry the film could fall into that uncanny valley we’ve seen so often when CGI has been used too much. After all, Indiana Jones’ previous film featured many CGI set pieces that ended up feeling plastic and dreamlike — a severe departure from the realistic grit of the original trilogy.
And Lucasfilm has had very spotty results with CGI facial work. Who can forget Princess Leia in Rogue One? While it may have been impressive in the few seconds audiences were surprised at theaters, a closure inspection of the face and facial movements reveals brevity was a necessity. Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian was another CGI attempt at facial realism, and though it was significantly better, heavy use of shadow was necessary to try to keep attention away from the digital reconstruction. Thank goodness there weren’t bright lights in the cockpit with Baby Yoda!
Yet Indiana Jones 5 will feature extensive outdoor scenes in realistic settings… and many of those scenes are going to require an actor not named Harrison Ford have a CGI Harrison Ford face applied.
To do this, sources say that Lucasfilm is going to be leaning on a hybrid proprietary system that will now incorporate famous YouTube deepfaker Shamook’s skills to refine the process. Hired by Lucasfilm in July, my sources say that he was brought on specifically because of the level of difficulty Indiana Jones 5 is going to present — a level that was beyond what Industrial Lights and Magic was confident it could fulfill. After all, Indiana Jones 5 is going to be the first movie in which the lead character needs CGI facial masking in realistic settings for practically the entire movie!
https://twitter.com/Sham00k/status/1256553858626662402
That Park Place has reached out to Shamook for comment on the story and to confirm whether or not he is working primarily on Indiana Jones 5. As of publication, Shamook has not provided a response, but that is to be expected given the type of work.
As for Ford and when it he may be available for filming once more, it’s a really confusing thing to figure out. I previously reported that Ford would be out 6-8 weeks, but a surprising number of sites are now reporting he’s out for three months, AND that filming will resume in September. Is that due to sites following the lead of one erroneous site, or has Ford opted for surgery now? I don’t have that information at this time. However, it should be noted that there continues to be a very real possibility that Indiana Jones 5 misses its scheduled release date and needs to be moved back. This will not be an easy task for post-production, Shamook or not.
https://twitter.com/CuberToy/status/1418241739308032002
For more information on Indiana Jones, Lucasfilm, and all that is fun, keep tuning into That Park Place. And feel free to leave us a comment below — we really do read them!
