Eric Jason Martin

Back on Sunset Boulevard, Ulbricht pecked some more at his laptop. Now I was Tom Hanks, specifically a young Tom Hanks, he of the bulging green eyes and the look of gathering alarm on his face in Splash when he first discovers that Daryl Hannah's character is a mermaid.

Back on Sunset Boulevard, Ulbricht pecked some more at his laptop. Now I was Tom Hanks, specifically a young Tom Hanks, he of the bulging green eyes and the look of gathering alarm on his face in Splash when he first discovers that Daryl Hannah's character is a mermaid.

I can divulge Hanks' name because his AI debut arrived in theaters nationally on November 1st in a movie called Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Eric Roth, a reunion of the creative team behind Forrest Gump, and co-starring Robin Wright, Here is based on a 2014 graphic novel that takes place at a single spot in the world, primarily a suburban New Jersey living room, over several centuries.

I can divulge Hanks' name because his AI debut arrived in theaters nationally on November 1st in a movie called Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Eric Roth, a reunion of the creative team behind Forrest Gump, and co-starring Robin Wright, Here is based on a 2014 graphic novel that takes place at a single spot in the world, primarily a suburban New Jersey living room, over several centuries.

The story skips back and forth through time, but focuses on a baby boomer couple played by Hanks and Wright at various stages of their lives, from age 18 into their 80s, from post-World War II to the present day. You couldn't have made this movie three years ago, Zemeckis told me. He could have used multiple actors for each character, but the audience would get lost trying to keep track.

The story skips back and forth through time, but focuses on a baby boomer couple played by Hanks and Wright at various stages of their lives, from age 18 into their 80s, from post-World War II to the present day. You couldn't have made this movie three years ago, Zemeckis told me. He could have used multiple actors for each character, but the audience would get lost trying to keep track.

Conventional makeup could have taken a decade off Hanks, who is now 68, but not half a century. The crux with CGI is time and money. Persuading us that we're watching Hanks and Wright in their 20s would have required hundreds of VFX artists, tens of millions of dollars, and months of post-production work. Doable, in theory, but major studios don't spend that kind of money on movies like here.

Conventional makeup could have taken a decade off Hanks, who is now 68, but not half a century. The crux with CGI is time and money. Persuading us that we're watching Hanks and Wright in their 20s would have required hundreds of VFX artists, tens of millions of dollars, and months of post-production work. Doable, in theory, but major studios don't spend that kind of money on movies like here.

There's no capes or explosions or aliens or superheroes or creatures, Ulbricht explained. It's people talking. It's families. It's their loves and their joys and their sorrows. It's their life. AI software, though, changes all the accounting.

There's no capes or explosions or aliens or superheroes or creatures, Ulbricht explained. It's people talking. It's families. It's their loves and their joys and their sorrows. It's their life. AI software, though, changes all the accounting.

By using every available frame of Hanks' movie career to capture his facial movements and the look of his skin under countless lighting conditions, physical environments, camera angles, and lenses, metaphysics artists can generate a digital Tom Hanks mask with the click of a few keystrokes. And what we see on screen is just one factor in AI's ascendancy.

By using every available frame of Hanks' movie career to capture his facial movements and the look of his skin under countless lighting conditions, physical environments, camera angles, and lenses, metaphysics artists can generate a digital Tom Hanks mask with the click of a few keystrokes. And what we see on screen is just one factor in AI's ascendancy.

It's the quality, and it's the speed, and it's the cost, Albrecht said. No six-month production lag. No fortune spent.

It's the quality, and it's the speed, and it's the cost, Albrecht said. No six-month production lag. No fortune spent.

During the filming of Here, Metaphysic devised a setup that enabled Zemeckis and his crew to follow the shooting of scenes on two different monitors, one showing the raw feed from the camera of the actors as they appear in reality, and one filtered through its AI tools showing the actors at whatever age the scene required.

During the filming of Here, Metaphysic devised a setup that enabled Zemeckis and his crew to follow the shooting of scenes on two different monitors, one showing the raw feed from the camera of the actors as they appear in reality, and one filtered through its AI tools showing the actors at whatever age the scene required.

Zemeckis has a long history of pouncing on new technologies to help him tell stories, from Forrest Gump to the Polar Express, and Hanks has often come along for the ride. In this case, the production breakthrough mattered as much as the image quality. It was crucial that the cast could see it, because then they could adjust their performance, Zemeckis told me.

Zemeckis has a long history of pouncing on new technologies to help him tell stories, from Forrest Gump to the Polar Express, and Hanks has often come along for the ride. In this case, the production breakthrough mattered as much as the image quality. It was crucial that the cast could see it, because then they could adjust their performance, Zemeckis told me.

They could say, oh, I see, I've got to make sure I'm moving like I was when I was 17 years old. No one had to imagine it. They got a chance to see it in real time. And despite the technical ambition, HERE only cost about $50 million, less than a quarter of some Marvel movie budgets.

They could say, oh, I see, I've got to make sure I'm moving like I was when I was 17 years old. No one had to imagine it. They got a chance to see it in real time. And despite the technical ambition, HERE only cost about $50 million, less than a quarter of some Marvel movie budgets.