[ShaneP]

So I'm rewatching Ant-Man(thx Kmart).

The start of the film has Michael Douglas playing a younger version of himself. He appears like he does roughly during the Oliver Stone Wall Street days. And it looks completely legit.
This is made possible by de-aging vfx artistry by Lola VFX(the experts at this sort of thing).

We know Disney is making Anthology standalone SW movies. One of those movies is supposedly based on Young Han Solo. It will be directed by the duo who made the really fun The Lego Movie for Warners.
Well, what if they cast Harrison Ford as a young Han Solo?
Why not? They effectively erased roughly 30+ years off Michael Douglas for Ant Man.

Here is a side by side of Douglas in Ant Man(Left; circa 1989) and Douglas today:




So why couldn't they do the same for Ford and allow him to play himself?
There's no need to recast the part(and really, who could play Han besides Ford?).
So cast Harrison to play a young Solo and contract with Lola vfx to do all the de-aging stuff for the film. ILM can do the rest of the cool SW stuff.

What say you?

[Kmart]

Except I'm pretty sure he only did TFA because he knew he wouldn't have to play Solo again.

Other than that, a great idea (and it would have worked for that GEMINI thing from a decade or more back, when Ford was going to play an old hit man and then via cg play the younger clone of the same guy. That was an ILM proof of concept thing wasn't it? Often wondered if LOOPER arose out of the ashes of GEMINI.)

[ShaneP]

Except I'm pretty sure he only did TFA because he knew he wouldn't have to play Solo again.

Other than that, a great idea (and it would have worked for that GEMINI thing from a decade or more back, when Ford was going to play an old hit man and then via cg play the younger clone of the same guy. That was an ILM proof of concept thing wasn't it? Often wondered if LOOPER arose out of the ashes of GEMINI.)

Oh I've no doubt Ford wouldn't do it unless he was paid a fortune and possibly not even then. Yes I was thinking of the Gemini Man film when I was writing this. It was at ILM and that was way back perhaps over a decade ago.

I know the Douglas scene is very short but it was so damn good. It was seamless(typical for Lola though).

The young Han Solo anthology is the one announced stand alone I'm most uninterested in simply because they'd have to recast the role. But why? All you will spend the whole film doing is thinking about how much this actor does or does not do things like Ford.

So, just cast Ford in the role! Besides, this is not like James Bond. You don't recast these characters, same with Indiana Jones.

Then again, they did it with Trek 09.

Ugh...

Better off not doing it. Just can't imagine what the payoff is. If you recast that role, I feel sorry for the guy doing it because everyone will be doing nothing but comparing him to Ford.

[TylerMirage]

I feel bad for the people behind a Han Solo origin movie. Use old Harrison Ford and de-age him: get chastised for de-aging him because "the CG will be SOOOO obvious". Cast a younger actor that's not Harrison Ford (even well-loved A-listers like Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt or Joseph Gordon Levitt) and get criticized for them not being Harrison Ford. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Anywho, yeah, I'd say that by the time they actually get around to doing the origin movie, the CG tech will have advanced enough that we'll be able to convincingly make Harrison young for the entirety of the movie. Lola is great (read: phenomenal), but majority of their work is feature in short spurts, like isolated sequences (outside of Benjamin Button, but even then their work was split between DD and practical make-up work). I think they need some time to refine if they want to have a full two hours of young CG Harrison.

[TylerMirage]

Well, it's a flurry of news for this title.

Directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller have departed the project with three weeks of filming remaining due to "creative differences". Everything appeared kosher, but the more articles come out the more that it's (apparently) revealed to be more than meets the eye.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40352439

Ron Howard has been hired as the replacement director.

http://www.eonline.com/ca/news/862639/r ... ris-miller

[ShaneP]

Well, it's a flurry of news for this title.

Directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller have departed the project with three weeks of filming remaining due to "creative differences". Everything appeared kosher, but the more articles come out the more that it's (apparently) revealed to be more than meets the eye.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40352439

Ron Howard has been hired as the replacement director.

http://www.eonline.com/ca/news/862639/r ... ris-miller

I enjoy some of Howard's films but others…not so much. However, he is a real talent and they're likely looking for someone to just bring it all home at this point in the game.

[TylerMirage]

I enjoy some of Hoard's films but others…not so much. However, he is a real talent and they're likely looking for someone to just bring it all home at this point in the game.

That's what I'm thinking, too. I said this on another forum, but... not to belittle the work of any creative director, writer or producer, but Disney/LucasFilm 'just' need someone to come in and finish the last 15% of the shoot and then work in post. A lot of work where a lot of creative choices are still made, but still. They don't need a creatively inspiring choice who is going to bring a whole set of fresh ideas to the table, they need someone who can finish what someone else has started. They need someone who can be handed a set of instructions and be told "follow this". A talented director who doesn't mind coming into the middle of a puzzle to finish putting the pieces together as he's told in the overall plan of what Disney, LucasFilm and Miller/Lord have set forth.

Basically like a substitute teacher, now that I think of it that way. The lesson plans are already made, so come in, put the slides up and here's the answer key for their afternoon test.

[ShaneP]

Julian Foddy is supervising London's portion of the fx work.