Ang Lee’s latest movie stars Will Smith as an assassin who has to battle a clone that can not only predict his every move but is also much younger. Gemini Man will be released on October 11.
The screenplay is by David Benioff (Game of Thrones), Billy Ray and Darren Lemke. Lee’s movie uses de-aging technology to show Smith as his current 50-year-old self and his younger version. In the trailer, which was released on Wednesday, Smith’s character Henry Brogan is hunted down by a highly effective rival who turns out to be his replica.
If Henry Junior is as good as Henry, it’s because, as Mary Elizabeth Winstead says in the trailer, “He is you.” A slower version of Alphaville’s Forever Young plays over the trailer. The cast includes Clive Owen as the brain behind the cloning and Benedict Wong.
The movie has been in the making since the late 1990s, with Tony Scott and Curtis Hanson among the possible directors. Prospective lead actors included Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Mel Gibson. Ang Lee came on board in 2017.
Footage of a de-aged Smith, which has been created by the visual effects studio Weta Digital, was unveiled at the CinemaCon event in April. “His performance is exquisite. We had to peel the layers of his experience, to the innocence of his [younger self] in the performance,” Lee said at the event, according to Hollywood Reporter.
Gemini Man also boasts of “cutting-edge high frame rate of 120fps (frames per second), with 4K, 3D, high dynamic range (HDR) and immersive sound”, Hollywood Reporter added. Lee had previously worked with the 120fps format in his 2016 movie Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Gemini Man will also be released in regular 2D and 3D formats.