Here

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Tom Hanks rejoins his “Forrest Gump” co-star Robin Wright for “Here” – a new movie from Oscar-winning “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis.
This outing also reunites screenwriter Eric Roth, cinematographer Don Burgess, and composer Alan Silvestri for the first time in thirty years since “Forrest Gump.”

But this is not a Forrest Gump Redux. With a rather odd premise, “Here” is about a place, following its inhabitants from years past into the future. This adaptation of Richard McGuire’s graphic novel is set in a single room and follows its inhabitants over many years.

The cast ranges from indigenous people (played by Joel Oulette and Dannie McCallum) to Al and Rose Young (Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly) to their son and his wife (Hanks and Wright) and a host of others including a pinup girl (Ophelia Lovibond), an inventor (David Fynn), and a little boy in a dress (Dexter Sol Ansell). As well as Leslie Zemeckis, Jonathan Aris, Michelle Dockery, Gwilym Lee, Albie Salter, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Anya Marco Harris, Mohammed George in various roles.

But the focus is on place, not people.

The cast of characters walks on and off the stage that is set in “Here.”

The film uses a new generative artificial intelligence technology called Metaphysic Live to face-swap and de-age the actors in real-time as they perform instead of using additional post-production processing methods.

“I’ve always been attracted to technology that helps me to tell a story. With Here, the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves. Metaphysic’s AI tools do exactly that, in ways that were previously impossible,” Zemeckis says.

The tech firm behind @DeepTomCruise and the deepfakes featured on “America’s Got Talent,” Metaphysic is “the perfect choice for this incredibly challenging, emotional film.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com