“Here”: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis reunited 30 years after “Forrest Gump”

The ici of the title is a house, the one in which the characters played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright live in this new film by Robert Zemeckis where rejuvenation software (de-aging in English) allows us to see them again as at the start of their career.

The first scene of the film, “the one we shot first,” Tom Hanks told us during a round table attended by the QMI Agency, shows Richard (Tom Hanks) and Margaret (Robin Wright), now elderly, returning to the house where they lived for decades. A few minutes later, we find them barely out of adolescence, when Richard introduces his sweetheart to his father, Al (Paul Bettany), and his mother, Rose (Kelly Reilly).

The specter of AI…

This temporal sleight of hand is the work of software called Metaphysic Live, a generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technology, essential to bringing life to Ici on the big screen. Because the feature film is the adaptation, by Zemeckis and Eric Roth (the screenwriter of Forrest Gump) from the graphic novel of the same name. The central point is less the characters than the place – the filmmaker’s camera remains in the same place, in the living room – which we see evolving since the formation of the Earth.

“The tool searched the internet to find interviews that Tom and I had done when we were 19, 20 and 21 years old. This data was then poured into our “young” faces. […] This tool gave my eyes the glow they had when I was young and innocent. We could never have imitated our 19-year-old selves. It was simply impossible with all the life experience we have 40 years later,” explains Robin Wright.

Enthusiastically, Tom Hanks explains that “we knew that this super computer would do, in nanoseconds, the post-production work of several months. We filmed the scenes and then watched them with the rejuvenation process. On the one hand, it’s shocking – we see ourselves 50 years younger – and on the other – which lasts a minute and a half – it’s funny because that’s when we see all the work that must be done.”

“With Robin, we got very technical quickly, realizing that we needed to improve our posture, stand up faster, speak faster, our eyes knew too much, etc.”

The two-time Oscar winner, whose fifth film with Robert Zemeckis, continues: “There were four sets in total, but we only worked on one, the house one. Filming was divided based on our ages in the film and we filmed it in order. For Robin and I, it was very compact, both physically and emotionally.

Robert Zemeckis has often been at the forefront of technology, whether we think of Forrest Gump for adding fictional characters to stock footage or to Boreal Express for the now usual use of performance capture.

“I don’t pretend to know what the future holds in terms of technology,” he says. Everything is happening so fast that I can’t tell.”

In his new feature film, he considers Metaphysic Live to be “digital makeup. I admit that I have no idea what the terms “artificial intelligence” mean. I’m just using an extremely fast computer to create these images.”

“The reason the digital makeup illusion works is simply that it’s the actors who bring the characters to life. There is no animation, everything is based on their warm, human, emotional performance. This is the key to the success of all this,” adds the director.

At the center of everything

“Human stories are a universal language,” underlines the director of Back to the future. When a film addresses universal themes, which we can all relate to, then they can be translated into any language and travel to any country.”

Deliberately ambitious, Ici aims to examine the passage of time, from the Native Americans (the couple is played by Dannie McCallum and Joel Oulette) to today with the Harrises, an African-American family (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Nicholas Pinnock and Cache Vanderpuye).

“No, I’m not afraid of dying,” says Tom Hanks. But, with age, we discover that time is not infinite. When we were kids, a day lasted so long, but that’s not the case anymore. I get up around 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m. because I am aware that the days only have 24 hours. And yet, when I go to bed, I wonder if I’ve done enough. Have I thought, spoken, read, created, shared enough with those I love? Time flies for a guy like me! I’m 68 years old, I’m at the end of my career! I am not afraid, but I am extremely aware that this is not forever.”

A moving reunion

The last time Robert Zemeckis directed Robin Wright and Tom Hanks was for Forrest Gumpan iconic feature film that won six Oscars and grossed $678.2 million at the international box office.

“I loved every minute of working on Forrest Gumpsaid Robin Wright. I loved the story, I loved working with Bob and Tom, we had so much fun. I have the impression that we have always spoken the same language, had the same vision. And when we found each other again, it was as if no time had passed.”

“Since this is my fourth film with Bob and Tom’s fifth, we never really lost touch. On the other hand, we didn’t grow old together, we don’t see each other every week. To meet again, now that we are mature adults, has been great,” says the actress.

Tom Hanks agrees. “It’s as if the last 30 years didn’t exist. And yet, we took a moment to note that 30 years had indeed passed […]”, he says, remembering the first day of rehearsals for Ici.

Ici lights up the screens of cinemas across the province from 1^is November.