Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be turning on the PR machine ahead of their new ‘Indiana Jones’ film coming out in 2023. The fifth installment in the franchise will be Harrison Ford’s last outing as the famous adventurer. Now the director has said they will take fans back to Indy’s younger days via digital de-aging.

Director James Mangold told Empire Magazine:

“I wanted the chance to dive into this kind of full-on George-and-Steven old picture and give the audience an adrenaline blast.”

From what I can gather they have setpiece that puts Indiana Jones in some kind of castle fighting Nazis. Then we shift to 1969.

“So that the audience doesn’t experience the change between the ‘40s and ‘60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now.”

According to the interview it seems that they are implementing some new ILM software that goes through archived footage of Harrison Ford when he was younger and then they match it to the current footage he filmed with a motion capture set up.

It seems they even got out his original Raiders of the Lost Ark jacket to make sure it still fit and then replicated it exactly for the new filming.

The hope seems to be that people will assume it’s “found footage” according to Kathleen Kennedy.

“My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago.’ We’re dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.’”

The good news is that even Harrison Ford says it looks good. That was something I was worried about given how digital de-aging usually doesn’t look quite right.

Here’s what he said:

“This is the first time I’ve seen it where I believe it. It’s a little spooky. I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works. Doesn’t make me want to be young, though. I’m glad to have earned my age.”

Empire also revealed that  Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character Helena is Indy’s goddaughter.

Mangold described her as “slippery, charming, the girl next door, [and] a grifter.”

Who knows how this is going to turn out. Personally I really want it to be good. But given Lucasfilm’s track record of late I have concerns. Fingers crossed it’s good. Has to at least be better than the fourth film. I hope.

‘Indiana Jones 5’ will hit theaters on June 30, 2023.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: Empire