Actor and filmmaker Andy Serkis has said that his new Lord Of The Rings film The Hunt For Gollum will make some use of AI in its de-aging process. Director and title star Andy Serkis is currently filming The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum in New Zealand – a potentially massive, complex ... The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum will use AI for “some of the de-aging”
Actor and filmmaker Andy Serkis has said that his new Lord Of The Rings film The Hunt For Gollum will make some use of AI in its de-aging process.
Director and title star Andy Serkis is currently filming The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum in New Zealand – a potentially massive, complex production that is scheduled to be finished and in cinemas for next December.
The film’s events take place between those of The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Hobbit, and will see several actors reprise their roles from Peter Jackson’s earlier Lord Of The Rings films – as well as Serkis (under heavy layers of digital makeup as Gollum) there’s also Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Lee Pace as Thranduil and Orlando Bloom as Legolas.
With the final instalment in Jackson’s trilogy, The Return Of The King, having been released 23 years ago, it’s inevitable that those actors have changed quite a bit in the interim. To get around this, Serkis and his filmmakers will be doing a bit of digital de-aging – the kind of thing that has become an increasingly common sight since X-Men: The Last Stand pioneered it in 2006 (coincidentally, Ian McKellen was de-aged there, too).
When asked about the hot-button subject of AI, Serkis told Variety that the tech was being used in The Hunt For Gollum, but was quite specific about the kind of AI he was talking about.
“There’s a little bit of de-aging for some of the characters,” he said, “and machine learning is part of that process.”
It sounds as though Serkis is referring to the kind of AI technology that pre-dates the more controversial type of generative AI represented by the likes of ChatGPT and Midjourney. Movies such as Gemini Man, The Irishman and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny all used complex systems involving camera rigs, tracking markers and machine learning algorithms to make their lead actors look younger.
Serkis certainly isn’t opposed to generative AI, however. Echoing similar sentiments from his old colleague Peter Jackson, Serkis describes the tech as a “creative tool” much like any other.
“I think AI as a creative tool is, as long as it’s not exploitative and as long as it’s not harming anybody or defaming anybody or telling mistruths, is valuable,” Serkis said. “If you’re looking for reference material, say, in the old days you get reference images for something. Well, now you can prompt something and get a result. And I don’t have any problem with that.
“When it becomes exploitative and people are not remunerated for the work that they’ve done, or it’s used in nefarious, or mean-spirited or pornographic ways, then of course, that’s terrible and we’ve only brought it upon ourselves.”
The problem, unfortunately, is that AI is exploitative, is harming people, and is telling mistruths and is being used in nefarious, mean-spirited and pornographic ways. For this writer, those are a lot of philosophical and moral hurdles to leap over before AI can be regarded as just another creative tool.
Anyway.
Serkis is also keen to emphasise that The Hunt For Gollum will use a similar mix of practical effects and CGI to bring its fantasy to life.
“We’re not creating AI shots in our movie, every shot is created in a traditional way,” he said. “One of the things actually that I really wanted to do with this film was to bring back all of the great filmmaking skills, from miniatures to prosthetics and marry them up, because that’s my taste. I like it when you mix up different filmmaking techniques.”
Serkis wouldn’t be drawn on exactly which actors would be de-aged in his movie, but it’s fair to say we already have a shortlist.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum is in cinemas from the 17th December 2027.
