See How Marvel De-Aged Michael Douglas For ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’
Marvel’s special-effects do a lot of cool stuff in each of their movies. They’ve made Robert Downey Jr. fly, put Bradley Cooper’s personality into an obnoxious space raccoon, transformed Edward Norton into Mark Ruffalo, and turned Josh Brolin into a giant purple alien jerkwad. But their greatest achievement might be one of their least showy: Their use of computer tech to de-age actors for flashback scenes set decades earlier.
This trick has gotten a workout in both of the Ant-Man movies, including this summer’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. Each film opens with a scene that takes place many years prior to the main action. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, it’s the last time young Hope Van Dyne sees her mom Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), before she falls into the Quantum Realm and is presumed dead for decades. Both Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas — who plays Hope’s dad, Hank Pym — look 30 years younger in these scenes. And since they were both already movie stars 30 years ago, and we know what they looked like back then, the fact that this transformation is convincing is even more impressive.
The video above from Wired is a 10-minute long featurette about all the effects in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and includes all the nitty and the gritty of the de-aging scenes. Check out Ant-Man Michael Douglas turning back into Fatal Attraction Michael Douglas! Here it is in GIF form:
So cool. Ant-Man and the Wasp is now available on Digital HD and Blu-ray.
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