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New Tom Hanks film fails to wow despite the cutting-edge tech

Robert Zemeckis's would-be epic film Here relies on real-time de-ageing technology. But do its ambitions conceal a more mundane project?

By Miriam Balanescu

22 January 2025

2YHYWF4 HERE - FILM STILLS. 2024 . USA. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in Here - (c)Sony Pictures - is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. The film is a nonlinear story covering a single spot of land and its inhabitants from the distant past to the present. Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly star. Release November 2024. Captioned 12 November 2024 Ref: LMK110-MB071-121124 Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only. Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service

Tom Hanks (Richard) and Robin Wright (Margaret) are young again thanks to de-ageing technology

Landmark Media/Alamy

Here
Robert Zemeckis
On release in UK and US cinemas

Artificial intelligence was on the minds of film-makers years before it arrived in daily life, with movies like Blade Runner and A. I. Artificial Intelligence warning of its potential. The use of machine learning, however, is less common in the making of films. Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ang Lee, Colin Cairnes and others have taken early steps with a variety of technologies, but often met a backlash around copyright and job losses.

So what…

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