If you’ve already seen the prequel «Mad Max», you’ve probably noticed how young «Furiosa» looks like Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the character in her more mature years.
You might think that this resemblance is due to skillful casting or coincidence, but in fact — it’s all about AI, which decided to use George Miller to make the two age versions of the character more similar (interestingly, the director had previously stated that the technology looked questionable in the shot and that this was the reason why he refused to rejuvenate Charlize Theron for the role in favor of Taylor-Joy).
«George Miller had the idea very early on,» Taylor-Joy explained in an interview with The Kelly Clarkson Show. «The audience was already used to Furiosa [Charlize Theron in Fury Road»], so he wanted the transition from the two new actresses to be seamless. They mixed our faces».
Taylor-Joy said that the percentage of her traits in Alia Brown started at 35% at the beginning of the movie and ended up at 80% when Anya eventually took over the entire role.
Details about the use of the tool were not disclosed, but it is known that DNEG and Framestore were the main visual effects suppliers for the film, and Metaphysic AI, a startup that develops artificial intelligence tools for purposes such as actor rejuvenation, was mentioned in the credits, notes Variety.
Earlier, Metaphysic AI’s leading content specialist Ed Ulbrich said that the company took part in the creation of three films to be released this year, but did not specify the titles. Ulbrich previously worked at Digital Domain, which contributed to the Oscar-winning film «The Curious Case of Benjamin Button» in 2008, which also used aging/rejuvenation technologies.
«Furiosa» (the fifth film in the Max Rockatansky franchise) debuted at the box office with a modest $59 million. Despite the fact that the total amount looks quite decent, the film did not meet the forecasts of experts who expected it to show the best start among this year’s box office debuts. It is worth noting that the prequel cost $168 million to produce, excluding marketing costs.