If you watch the first trailer for “Gemini Man” without knowing much about the production, you may just write it off as another Will Smith action film, but this time with the actor fighting a younger version of himself. But under the hood, so to speak, “Gemini Man” is hiding some incredible technological advances that put the action film on par with something like “Avatar.” And it’s those aspects of the film that seem to excite the cast and crew, including director Ang Lee, the most.
Speaking to Total Film, Smith and Lee talked about the ridiculous technology on display in the film and how the untrained eye might not even be able to guess just how much work went into the creation of “Gemini Man.”
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First off, it’s obvious by the trailer that Smith occupies both lead roles, both as the age-appropriate hero and the much younger ‘Fresh Prince’-era antagonist. With the use of de-aging technology beginning to be commonplace, film fans might just write the filmmaking trick as another example of de-aging, mixed with some clever editing. But as Smith describes, the folks behind the scenes of “Gemini Man” went much, much further than that, creating an entirely CG character instead of just applying that de-aging that we’ve grown accustomed to.
“That’s not my skin that they just stretched,” said Smith. “The level of the work is so spectacular. It’s like… look, y’all aren’t understanding how good we are! The team at Weta has done something that’s really never been done before.”
Even though WETA is apparently breaking new ground with CG characters, the most interesting filmmaking tech being explored on “Gemini Man” is probably Lee’s use of 120 frames-per-second, versus the typical 24fps. Utilizing the higher frame rate has been something the director has played with before, most recently on the 2016 film “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” but Lee reveals that this time, for his new film, he actually has a firm grasp on how to use the added frames.
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“[’Billy Lynn’] was the first time I tried this media. I was really overwhelmed,” Lee admitted. “It was like, all of a sudden, I had to swap to a new religion. For this, I started to feel like I kind of know what I’m doing now.”
The 120fps aspect of the film might confuse those that remember the use of 48fps during Peter Jackson’s first ‘Hobbit’ film. That drew criticism from film fans for its soap opera-y look. But for Lee, he thinks 120fps is not just a gimmick. Instead, he feels that the added frames add a whole new layer of immersion.
“You’re not just watching somebody’s story, you’re experiencing the story yourself,” the filmmaker explained. “It’s an immersive experience. We tried to make it look beautiful. We created different ways of lighting. I’m on a mission of trying to discover a new aesthetic for digital cinema, which is dimensionalized, with clarity. It excites me tremendously.”
As mentioned, both the 120fps and the advanced CGI are things that many film fans won’t even take notice of…unless it’s bad. That means, for “Gemini Man” to truly provide new tools for filmmakers to use in future projects, the film itself has to be good. We’ll have to wait until later this year to see if that is true.
“Gemini Man” hits theaters on October 11.
