Tom Hanks is one of the most celebrated actors in the world, having starred in several iconic films throughout his career and winning two Academy Awards in the process. Like all actors, however, he’s been no stranger to the rise of AI and its potential to upend the film industry.
Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deepfake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on…. Outside the understanding that has been done with AI and deepfake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me… Without a doubt, people will be able to tell. But the question is, will they care?”
Life after death
Hanks raised the prospect of his image being used to bring films to life far beyond his death in an episode of The Adam Buxton Podcast.
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The notion of using AI in film to either recreate actors that have died, or to generate performances by using the images of living actors, is highly controversial and led to industrial action at the time. Hanks said that he had first anticipated such a future during his work on 2004’s ‘The Polar Express’, which pioneered live-action motion capture CGI.
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Using technology to bring actors back from the dead, however, wasn’t a new phenomenon. ‘Rogue One’ used technology to digitally resurrect Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin, while the ‘Irishman’ used AI to de-age Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci so they could portray their characters over a period of decades.
The future of cinema
What’s clear now is that AI in film is here to stay, with the technology being utilized in several film and television productions today.
The 2025 Oscars saw films that used AI, including ‘Emilia Perez’ and ‘The Brutalist’, win big. Netflix, meanwhile, revealed that 300 titles used generative AI in one form or another this year. Usage spanned every stage, from concepting and visualization to post-production and eventual release.
As far as audiences go, most people may not notice these subtle uses of AI in the production process, and may not object to this kind of AI usage either. But, generally, research consistently shows they reject the idea of AI-generated content.
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