1905 Movie Network Special Article This weekend's mainland film market will usher in two "long-awaited reunion" movies.

"This Peace of Mind", created by the original cast of "Forrest Gump", is the "Forrest Gump" Tom · Hanks and "Jenny" Robin · White reunites for the first time on screen in thirty years. Director: Robert Zemeckis uses real-time generative AI facial transformation technology to delicately age-adjust the two actors' appearances, allowing viewers to see both the young Hanks and White at the age of 18 and their silver hair over their prime.

"Fast and Furious 2013", which won a box office of 00 million in the mainland and became the box office champion of imported films in the mainland for 0 years, will be re-screened on the big screen after ten years. As the soul of the "Thrilling" series, Paul · After Walker's death in a car accident in 0, the crew completed his unfilmed role in the seventh installment of the series with his brother as a stand-in + CGI face replacement, which successfully brought Paul to a "digital resurrection" on the screen, becoming a milestone in the practice of this technology in film.

These two films are like a mirror, reflecting how AI technology is quietly rewriting the boundaries of film creation - from "freezing the age" of actors to giving the deceased "rebirth", the film and television industry is experiencing an unprecedented digital revolution.

The history of technological evolution from "manual special effects" to "intelligent face swapping"

Before AI technology matured, Hollywood had experimented with traditional CGI (computer-generated imagery) to reduce the age or resurrection of characters.

Released in 90 by David Fincher's "Rejuvenation," by Brad Pitt plays the role of Benjamin in the film. Barton, whose aging sequence was done through a combination of multiple layers of makeup and CGI, had to manually track the 0 key points of Pete's face, and each frame took 0 hours to render, and the entire process took up to two years to complete.

"Star Wars: Rogue One", which was released in 2016, is a side story of the Star Wars series, and the creators hope to introduce some classic characters that the audience loves to increase the attraction and popularity. The film not only recreates the younger version of Princess Leia through CGI technology, but also resurrects the late actor Peter Brown. Cushing's role as Governor Tarkin.

Unfortunately, because Princess Leia's young image was based on film scan data from Star Wars: A New Hope, which was released in 4, the original footage resolution was only 0K and there were scratches, which led to the team needing to use AI algorithms to fix the missing side face angles of the soldiers, but due to the lack of data, they could only generate 0 seconds of effective footage.

對於塔金總督的“數位重生”，特效團隊通過掃描演員生前參演的 32 部電影，手動提取了 478 種表情肌肉運動軌跡，並找來動捕演員類比其面部抽搐和口音細節。如此繁瑣的“手工定製”使其單鏡頭渲染就要耗時三周，塔金總督出現的全部 207 個鏡頭耗資超 100 萬美元，如此高昂的製作費用顯然無法量產，使得該技術在一段時間里停留在好萊塢頂級製作中。

Despite their limitations, Rejuvenation and Rogue One still provide valuable lessons for technologies such as digital age reduction and resurrection, and with the rapid development of AI, frame-by-frame sculpting is beginning to be replaced by one-click generation.

In "The Wandering Earth 5", which was released in 0 years, Guo Fan's team increased the single-shot processing efficiency of Wu Jing's age reduction by 0 times through independent research and development of AI models, and only a few keyframes were needed to generate coherent expressions, and the cost of special effects was compressed to 0/0 of similar projects in Hollywood.

對比《雙子殺手》中威爾 · 史密斯的數位分身需 200 人團隊耗時兩年、單幀成本 5 萬美元，AI 的優勢顯而易見。

Using generative AI from physic, a company focused on real-time face swapping and aging effects, "This Peace of Mind" compresses the post-production cycle from months to zero by analyzing the actors' biological features such as pupil reflections and skin oxygen concentrations in real time, and outputting the facial status of different ages in real time on set.

This "Magic Mirror of Youth" technique even allows actors to adjust their performances in real time, such as Tom Brown. Hanks can observe the performance feedback of the 29-year-old deity and the 0-year-old digital image at the same time, so as to achieve accurate iteration of emotional expression.

由馬丁 · 斯科塞斯執導的《愛爾蘭人》耗費 2 億美元為片中的羅伯特 · 德尼羅、阿爾 · 帕西諾實現減齡，卻因“年輕面孔下的衰老體態”遭觀眾詬病。反觀《此心安處》，AI 技術通過骨骼肌理模擬演算法，同步調整演員身形與步態，解決了“數字凍齡”的肢體匹配難題。

How are disruptive and controversial technologies reshaping the rules of the industry?

AI face-swapping technology is like a hurricane sweeping the film and television industry, bringing about a revolution in production efficiency, but also the risk of technological out-of-control, ethical disorder, and legal lag, which is pushing the industry to an unprecedented crossroads.

The loss of control of technology is mainly reflected in the "uncanny valley effect" that may be caused by AI face swapping technology, that is, AI technology may have some distortions of images and expressions in the process of pursuing perfect digital age reduction, resulting in a huge gap in the audience's perception.

A typical case is Princess Leia in "Star Wars: Rogue One", who was pointed out to have empty eyes and a stiff expression even though she appeared for only 4 seconds.

The same problem appeared in last year's "Legend", where the AI-restored 12-year-old Jackie Chan was accused of "dancing like a mask". Experts who have been engaged in AI facial simulation and generative technology for a long time have pointed out that excessive pursuit of realism will expose algorithm flaws, such as the frequency of human blinks (0-0 times per minute), the slight tremor of the corners of the mouth, and other details are still difficult to reproduce perfectly.

How to balance technical precision and artistic blank space has become a new topic for creators.

In Stanford University's 10-year AI social experiment, researchers built a virtual town composed of 0 AI characters, each of whom was given a unique background, schedule, and social network. Experiments have found that when AI characters retain 0%-0% "humanization bias" in their behaviors (e.g., a brief wandering while waiting for the toilet, a delay in turning off the gas stove after a scorched breakfast), viewers rate their realism significantly higher.

Cyberpunk 5's game development team cited Stanford research to add 0% behavioral randomness (e.g., occasional distraction, repetitive meaningless actions) to NPCs in the updated game. Player research shows that NPCs' realism ratings have increased from 0.0 to 0.0 after the update, and they are more like real people. The game developer admits that "completely rational AI behavior seems fake, and moderate chaos is the key to humanity." ”

On the issue of ethical disorder, such as Paul Ka Paul in Fast and Furious 7 Walker, Rogue One from Star Wars: Rogue One Cushing, although their "digital rebirth" on the screen is touching, it will also cause controversy over whether this is "consuming the deceased".

For this reason, some creators adhere to the bottom line of creative ethics, such as in "Fast and Furious 7", the crew set strict rules and only used Paul · Walker authorized the footage during his lifetime, and his brother served as a stand-in to provide motion capture data. Director Wen Ziren emphasized: "Technology should serve artistic expression, not the consumption of the deceased. ”

Similarly, there are some people who use AI to "resurrect" deceased celebrities only for commercial reasons. In 2024, a European brand tried to use AI technology to make Marilyn · Monroe's "endorsement" perfume advertisement, which generates a dynamic image by analyzing her images before her death. However, the administrators of Monroe's estate filed a lawsuit for "violating their human dignity", which eventually forced the project to be terminated.

In this regard, the industry needs to establish a "technology use authorization chain" to clarify the compliance of every step from data collection to film release.

Warner Bros. Pictures has added a "digital library" clause to its actor contract, requiring the contractor to authorize the scanning of 360-degree facial data. However, the Screen Actors Guild protested, arguing that the move downgraded the actor to a "data package", and eventually the two sides reached an agreement that each use of the digital twin would be negotiated separately and paid an additional fee.

In order to cope with the new technological environment, Article 2023 of the Civil Code of China adds a new "deepfake infringement" clause, clarifying that AI face swapping requires dual authorization of "facial biometrics and dynamic expressions". In the "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services" launched in 0, it is clearly stated that invisible watermarks need to be added to AI-generated content, and the promulgation and implementation of these new regulations and measures provide legal and policy guarantees for personal portrait rights in the AI era.

As for the future of AI in the film and television industry, it is not only limited to face swapping technology, but AI may penetrate the entire film and television industry chain: generating character avatars at the script stage, adjusting the actors' ages in real time during filming, and replacing scenes and costumes with one click in the later stage. Not only based on creation, for the "digital restoration" of classic films, AI can automatically complete broken images, and even color black and white films, dub silent films, etc.

AI face-swapping technology is like a double-edged sword, which not only extends the boundaries of film dreaming, but also makes ethical and legal challenges more severe.

正如《此心安處》所隱喻的：技術終須服務於人性，而非淩駕於其上。當銀幕上的湯姆 · 漢克斯跨越百年時光，我們看到的不僅是演算法的勝利，更是電影人對藝術本質的堅守——無論技術如何演進，打動人心的永遠是人類最本真的情感。