Will Smith and Ang Lee Make the Case for Digital De-Aging in New ‘Gemini Man’ Featurette

If you've been to the movies at all this summer, odds are you've seen the trailer for Gemini Man, the latest film from two-time Oscar winning director Ang Lee starring Will Smith. If you've been to the movies more than once this summer, you're also likely sick to death of that trailer, thanks in no small part to the creepy digital de-aging they did on Smith.

This new featurette about the film's production shows off some improved visual effects, however, leading me to believe this won't be the cgi nightmare I initially thought. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing natural about the digital de-aging process, but at the very least, it looks slightly better now than it did several months ago when the first trailer dropped.

Ang Lee is an undeniably masterful director, but ever since Life of Pi, he's been obsessed with pushing the boundaries of technology, delivering an incredibly unsettling and wholly unnecessary 48 fps high-frame-rate production with Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Gemini Man is apparently following in that film's footsteps, bringing us an even higher frame rate of 60fps. For reference, 99.9% of movies are shot at 24 frames per second, so this has the potential to look even more unnatural. Two and a half times more unnatural, to be precise.

Gemini Man hits theaters on October 11.