Digital de-ageing: from The Irishman’s Robert De Niro to Samuel L Jackson in Captain Marvel, how the tech is reaching new levels

The Irishman, Gemini Man, Captain Marvel: 2019 was a stellar year for digital de-ageing, but the techniques used were often quite different

The technology has long been called the Holy Grail of visual FX, and now it is at a place where it looks believable

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Special effects can make or break a film, and it’s made Oscar-nominated film The Irishman a hit, thanks to new digital de-ageing techniques used in many films in 2019. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00pm, 15 Jan 2020Updated: 10:40pm, 15 Jan 2020

With Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman up against Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood and 1917 for the best picture Oscar next month, all eyes are on the special effects team that made the sprawling crime epic possible.

The Irishman unfolds over decades, with the 76-year-old Robert De Niro and his co-stars playing their characters from their 30s into retirement age, a feat that’s made the film one of 2019’s most acclaimed movies.

It’s all possible through new digital de-ageing techniques that, in the past year in cinemas, have shaved decades from Samuel L. Jackson’s face and turned the clock back to the 1990s for Will Smith – though neither Captain Marvel nor Gemini Man will be competing with The Irishman for an Oscar in visual effects.

Each film has arrived at its reverse ageing trick through a different technique, leading some to call 2019 a monumental year for de-ageing in film.

Joe Pesci, left, during the filming of The Irishman and the younger version of Pesci created by Pablo Helman, visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic. Photo: AP

To many, The Irishman stands out from the field, thanks to its complete avoidance of “tracking markers” – dots painted onto actors faces that allow computers to mathematically replicate facial movements and manipulate them as the director sees fit.

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